For the last three or four days rumors have been swirling that Gov. David Paterson will resign over a not-yet-published story in The New York Times that supposedly exposes in detail an affair the 55-year-old governor has supposedly been carrying on with a woman.

Denials that he is planning to quit have been pouring out of the governor’s office today. The Times has not commented about the speculation, so who knows what’s really going on in the political cesspool that Albany has become. One must weep for the Empire State which is bankrupt in more ways than one.

Anyway you slice it, there seems to be nothing but  nuttiness in the strange saga of Paterson, the “accidental governor,” who was lieutenant governor briefly until March 2008 when Eliot Spitzer, aka “Client 9” stepped down in disgrace because of his cavorting with a high-class prostitute.

At the outset of his taking office, Paterson admitted to having had an affair with a state employee. According to recent reports, he has been seen fooling around with a woman on two occasions—  at a New Jersey steakhouse and, of all places, in a closet in the governor’s mansion.

The national  culture of narcissicism is now officially out of control. Some day Paterson’s wife will no doubt write a tell-all book, joining the wives of Gov. Mark Sanford of South Carolina and pretty boy John Edwards. Revenge is lucrative.

Judging from the book reviews and profiling interviews Sanford and Edwards guys are really getting “the business,” the full treatment of public ridicule. To put it crudely, their nuts are in a vice. These guys are wimps. They ought to man up.

A Rudyard Kipling poem comes to mind. I don’t know. It just seems apt.

“When you’re wounded and left on Afghanistan’s plains,
And the women come out to cut up what remains,
Jest roll to your rifle and blow out your brains
An’ go to your Gawd like a soldier.
Go, go, go like a soldier,
Go, go, go like a soldier,
Go, go, go like a soldier,
So-oldier – of- the Queen!”

Men’s Health magazine just rated Yonkers 99th out of 100 cities on the subject of drunkeness. Obviously the editors never visited McLean Avenue on a Saturday night.

Number 1 was Fresno, Calif. I’m sure the city fathers there are proud of the distinction.

And if you can believe this, Boston was listed as 100th drunkest city.

Taken into consideration among other factors was the number of cases of DWI car crashes and deaths owed to alcohol-related liver disease.

Nice, huh? Just in time for the Super Bowl.

EndFragment->

Joe Delfino, the former White Plains mayor says he never shredded any public documents nor did he order any documents to be shredded before he left office at the end of last year. He called his accuser and successor, Mayor Adam Bradley, who posed for photos in front of empty filing cabinets “a mad man.”

Delfino told me on the phone today that he wants to clear his name and may go to the Westchester DA Janet DiFiore himself to do it.

“I am seriously going to call the district attorney,” the 77-year-old warhorse said. ” I gotta stop this mad man. It’s insanity…it’s insanity.”

Bradley (below being sworn into office) insisted  on my radio program ‘High Noon”  that important public papers were destroyed but essentially repeated what he said in today’s Journal News story that he did not intend to press charges against Delfino.

The former mayor said he never did any secret side deals or even had lunch with a developer while he was mayor.

“Special deals? That troubles me  because if  he knows something I don’t know, I gotta clear my name here.”

He went on. “I worked 30 years. I have a fairly good reputation. I’ve had calls galore on my behalf, from the Jewish community particularly, saying, you know, “We’re all upset here at the temple because  we did a lot together in this town.”

Delfino said he never kept contracts in his office after signing them, but gave them to the law department and copies were given to other appropriate departments. He also said he only had one file cabinet in his office and he only kept personal stuff in it.

The other cabinets, he said, were kept by secretaries. And those cabinets were in a tiny foyer outside the ladies room.

“I was never in there,” he said. “Didn’t know there was cabinets in there. And I didn’t destroy any documents.”

Delfino, who was mayor for 12 years,  said he thought Bradley set him up as a fall guy for the current budget mess.

“It just is embarrassing.,” he said. “I gotta stop him.”

“E

Newly elected White Plains Mayor Adam Bradley made quite a stir recently when he claimed  that the exiting mayor, Joe Delfino, cleaned out he executive filing cabinets and shredded all the important documents. One of the few things Delfino allegedly left behind was a copy of the 1999 State of the City address.

This was funny, or at least I thought it was funny because I immediately imagined what other stuff he might have left behind by accident. Like, say, $38,000 in unpaid parking tickets issued outside Dunne’s Pub and an old necktie with gravy stains covering 12 years of rubber-chicken dinners.

There must be more to this story. Perhaps the former mayor is unduly tarred?

I don’t know.

But I do know is that I will be interviewing Bradley tomorrow on my weekly radio program on XVOX, “High Noon.” Listen in by dialing 1460 AM or going online at wvox.com.

The show starts at 12 noon.

It was a classic back-and-forth which I thought might never end.

In a flurry of humorous e-mail exchanges, County Board Chairman Ken Jenkins gave as good as he got. First, he took me to task for the Feb. 1 post in which I speculated that his call for the legislators to forgo their stipends was a way to deflect some political heat he may be feeling in these early days of the new order.

Well, it was off to the races!

Here’s the series of communications:

Sorry Phil.  No heat.  I haven’t started dealing it out yet.
I actually advised Legislators of the following January 26th via letter and email.
Nice try though.
KenStartFragment-> EndFragment->

*******

(Reisman) StartFragment->BTW, my understanding is they can’t refuse it…they have to give it to charity after first paying taxes…
Keep cool!

******

StartFragment->(Jenkins)Not true.
I do not have to assign a stipend and all I asked was they advise  they do not wish to receive as stated in my memo.
In fact, I have a range of stipend to assign 3-6k
Don’t play too much in the snow.

******

(Reisman)StartFragment->Hmmm…are you kicking in along with Harckham and Nonna?
Don’t eat the yellow snow!

*******

StartFragment->(Jenkins)No.  I watch for the yellow snow.

*******

(Reisman)StartFragment->Me too….but you still didn’t answer the question.
Are you kicking in your stipend or part of it?

******

StartFragment->(Jenkins)No—beginning of the sentence.

******

StartFragment->(Reisman)I thought you said No, you watch for the yellow snow…not No, you won’t give up some of your stipend. But now, I know it’s the latter. However, I assume you will still avoid the yellow snow, as will I.
Carpe diem!

******

(Jenkins) StartFragment->Cool.

Mea culpa. I shouldn’t brought up the yellow snow. EndFragment->

County Board Chairman Ken Jenkins has been taking a few lumps lately for watering down a bill requiring that nonunion county employees pay 15 percent of their health premiums costs and for giving raises to his staff, including $135,000 to Lisa Kirton, the former alleged paramour of Gov. David Paterson.

It looks like he’s gone into damage-control mode. Today, he came across with an idea that would allow his fellow legislators to voluntarily forgo their stipends, a sum of varying amounts that comes with serving in leadership positions and  is over and above the base salary of $49,200.

Legislators who serve as committee chairs get an extra six-grand. Others in higher leaderships positions like the majority leader, a post currently held by Legislator Tom Abinanti, D-Greenburgh, get an additional $9,000. As chairman of the board, Jenkins gets a $40,000 stipend that brings his total pay up to $89,200.

“Letting legislators decide on whehter to accept the stipends is one thing we can do that says the Board is serious about finding cost-saving measures during these tough economic times,” Jenkins said in a press release.

This ought to be fun. Only two legislators have said they will refuse to accept their stipends—Peter Harckham, D-Katonha and John Nonne, D-Mount Pleasant. What will the others do?

It’s guaranteed that this wasn’t well received with most of the Board member. It’s interesting that Jenkins came up with the idea, but he didn’t say if he  would buy into it like Nonna and Harckham did.

It appears that the Westchester County Board of Legislators is poised to hand out some jobs and nice salaries,  exceeding  100-grand  in some cases, to no fewer than 11 support staffers.

According to my tipster, one of  those about to be hired to serve as the Boards’ chief of staff is Lisa Kirton , the White Plains woman  who was alleged to have been involved in an extra-marital affair with Gov. David Paterson a few years ago. She could receive up to $135,000 in salary.

In a resoultion, the Board plans to abolish  four job titles—clerk to the Board; assistant to the Board chairman; director of communications and committee counsel.

But it looks like the old bureaucratic shuffle is in play.  The following are  the new job titles and the minimum-maxium salaries that go with them:

Chief of Staff—$95,000 to $135,000.

Clerk and Chief Adminstrative Officer—$80,000 to $135,000.

Deputy Clerk and Deputy Administrative Officer—$65,000 to $95,000,

Staff Counsel—$40,000 to $90,000.

Director of Fiscal Affairs—$95,000 to $150,

Deputy Director of Fiscal Affairs—$85,000 to $135,000.

Legislative Counsel to the Chair—$50,000 to $100,000.

Legislative Aide, Council Staff—$35,000 to $80,000.

Committee Coordinator—$35,000  to $80,000.

Legislative Aide, Personnel—$20,000 to $50,000.

Fiscal Analyst—$50,000 to $80,000.

By  the way, when all is said and done, look for the final salaries to go way beyond the minimum and closer to the allowable max.

An insider tells me that this move means “massive raises to central staff personnel” at the Board, a group which reports to the chairman, Ken Jenkins.

We’‘ll see how this plays out. Look for more stories in The Journal News.

Oh, it sucks!

Just kidding, folks. But what did you think of President Obama’s speech last night?

Obama called for the end of bipartisan bickering, which suggested that he had more to say about the state of Congress and the collective state of mind of the American people than the overall state of the union.

His address is the topic de jour on “High Noon,” my weekly radio program on WVOX, 1460 AM (wvox.com). Tune in today 1t 12 noon and join in the conversation along with my co-host Matt Richter.

Calls will be taken at 914-636-0110.

Republicans and Democrats are strategizing like mad these days.

The national GOP  just sent out a questionnaire along with an appeal for money to Republican households in the 18th Congressional District, the seat held by Nita Lowey, D-Harrison. There are 15 questions in all, asking for a yes, no or no opinion. But they are heavily weighted to paint the Democrats in a poor light.

Meanwhile, the Democrats are trying to do the same, according to a memo obtained by CNN.

First, here are the questions from the Republican side:

1. Do you agree with Barack Obama and the Democrats that taxes should be raise for the sake of ‘fairness,’ regardlessof the negative impact it is likely to have on the economy?

2. Do you believe the federal government has gone too far in bailing out banks, insurance companies and the auto industry?

3. Do you support amnesty for illegal immigrants?

4. Should English be the official language of the United States?

5. Are you in favor of granting retroactive Social Security eligibility to illegal immigrants who gain U.S. citizenship through an amnesty program?

6. Are you in favor of the expanded welfare benefits and unlimited eligibility ( n0 time, education or owrk requirements) that Democrats in Congress are pushing to pass?

7. Do you believe that Barack Obama’s nominess for federal courts should be immediately and unquestionably approved for their lifetime appointments by the U.S. Senate?

8. Do you believe that the best way to increase the quality of public education in the U.S. is to rapidly expand federal funding while eliminating performance standards and accountability?

9. Do you support the creation of a national health insurance plan that would be administered by bureaucrats in Washington, D.C.?

10. Do you believe that the qaulity and availability of health care will increase if the federal government dictates pricing to doctors and hospitals?

11. Are you confident that new medicines and medical treatments will continue to be developed if the federal government controls prescription drug prices and sets proft margins for research and pharmaceutical companies?

12. Are you in favor of creating a government-funded ‘Citixen Voluneer Corp’ that would pay young people to do work now done churches and charites, earning Corps members the same pay and benefits given to militayr veterans?

13. Are you in favor of reinstituting the military draft, as Democrats in Congress have proposed?

14. Do you believe that the federal government should allow the unionization of te Department of Homelsan Security employee who serve in positions critical to the safety and security of our naion?

15. Do you support Democrats’s drive to eliminate workers’ right to a private ballot when considering unionization of their place of employment?

And now here’s the CNN report on the Democrats’ memo:

“In the wake of the surprising Massachusetts special election result last week, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee is urging the party’s 2010 candidates to define their Republican opponents early.

“Given the pressure Republican candidates feel from the extreme right intheir party, there is a critical – yet time-sensitive –opportunity for Democratic candidates,” a DSCC memo, obtained by CNN, states. “We have a finite window when Republicans candidates will feel susceptible to the extremists in their party. Given the urgent nature of this dynamic, we
suggest an aggressive effort to get your opponents on the record.”

Specifically, the DSCC wants Democratic candidates to pin down their likely opponents on several hot-button issues, including:

- Do you believe that Barack Obama is a U.S.citizen? – Do you think the Tenth Amendment bars Congress from issuing regulations
like minimum healthcare coverage standards? – Do you think programs like Social Security and Medicare represent
socialism, and should never have been created in the first place? – Do you think President Obama is a socialist? – Do you think America should return to a gold standard? EndFragment->

County Executive Rob Astorino’s proposal requiring that 400 nonunion county employees to kick in 15 percent of the cost of their health care benefits has gained the support of the minority Republican contingent on the Board of Legislators.

That gives him four votes. There are 13 Democrats on the board—and their support is far from certain.

As it stands, all county employees rceived 100 percent free health care. Astorino made health care contirbutions a campaign issue. His goal is to carry the idea over to contract negotiations with the county’s much larger union workforce. By his numbers, the county pays $149 million into employee health care, which is double what it was a decade ago.

As I pointed out in Sunday’s column, this will be an uphill battle. There are a lot of special interests involved.

Nevertheless, it should be a popular cause with the voters who, fed up with higher and higher property taxes,  put Astorino in office last November.

Jim Maisano, the Republican Minority Leader, issued a memo to the chairs of the legislative committees that will be reviewing Astorino’s proposal. The BOL has a habit of letting any legislation addressing  hot-button issues to languish in committees, which Maisano knows well. So his challenge is a strategic move to put the pressure on Democrats who have historically been very protective of perks and benefits.

In his memo, Maisano said:

“It is the fiduciary duty of every legislator to promote fiscally responsible and cost-effective reforms to control govenment spending. (Astorino’s) proposal is a step in the right direction. In that spirit, we aks that your committee fully review this proposal at a meeting as soon as possible and that your committee move decisively to schedule a vote to pass this significant legislation.”