Yesterday, the Reverend Al Sharpton convened a meeting of Democratic leaders at Sylvia's restaurant in Harlem to discuss the Governor Paterson situation. Their stance: they should support Paterson to serve out the rest of his term. State Senator Eric Adams said, "We had a president that was able to lead in 50 states while he was being in a grand jury, while he was being under impeachment proceedings. If he can lead 50 states, then surely our governor can lead one state."
City Comptroller John Liu, who called for Paterson to resign so that the state budget could be passed, was there and didn't directly address his earlier statement, "The fact of the matter is that the tremendous amount of leadership represented in this room will help us get to the goal — the goal of jobs, education, health care and housing." And a "prominent black Democrat" told the Daily News, "[Paterson]'s going to have to resign. It's going to get worse and worse. It's a total, absolute embarrassment."
The Post also points out that some of the attendees are plagued by scandal themselves: The House Ethics panel found Rep. Charles Rangel broke the rules when going on a junket, while Rep. Gregory Meeks and State Senator Malcolm Smith are tied to a suspicious Hurricane Katrina charity that's now under investigation.
