The government watchdog, Common Cause, has just asked Gov. David Paterson to resign… but that doesn’t seem likely. At least not today.

But who really knows? The governor is supposed to be delivering “remarks” at the grand opening of the Palm Bar and Grille at 5:45 p.m. today at  JFK International Airport, Terminal 4.

Paterson is unpredictable. Maybe he’ll  use the event  to scarf down a free meal, say “so long suckers” and hop a plane outta the Empire State.

Meanwhile, Common Cause NY is telling him in so many words that he shouldn’t let the door hit him on the way out.

Here’s part of their statement released minutes ago:

NEW YORK, NY (03/05/2010)(readMedia)—Common Cause/New York today called upon Governor David Paterson to put the welfare of New York State ahead of his own personal concerns and resign as Governor. “Given the fiscal and governmental crisis enveloping our state, we at Common Cause/New York have come to the reluctant conclusion that it would be in the best interest of the people of the State of New York for Governor Paterson to step aside as governor,” said Susan Lerner, Executive Director of the government watchdog organization. “As events have unfolded over the last several weeks, the allegations of abuse of power and criminal conduct by the governor have become the sole focus in Albany, at a time when the undivided attention and full creativity of the state’s leaders must be devoted to addressing the state’s very grave fiscal crisis.”

This just in from the governor’s office.

PUBLIC SCHEDULE FOR GOVERNOR DAVID A. PATERSON

*** FOR PLANNING PURPOSES ONLY ***

March 5, 2010

Friday, March 5

Governor David A. Paterson is in New York City and has no public schedule.

The buzz around Yonkers City Hall is that Mayor Phil Amicone is driving around in a brand new SUV. What an outrage! The nerve!

Say it ain’t so!

Well, apparently it isn’t so.

David Simpson, the mayor’s trusty press spokesman, told me upon inquiry a few minutes ago that “the mayor does NOT have a new car.” (He said this in an e-mail—the uppercase emphasis is his.)

Simpson explained that the three-year lease on Amicone’s 2006 Ford Expedition expired in December, but he drove the SUV through the month of January before turning it in. It was the city’s only leased vehicle, he said.

“In an effort to save money,” Simpson went on, “he (Amicone) s currently using a 2006 Chevy Tahoe that was reassigned from the Yonkers Police Department.”

Simpson said he suspected I received a tip from somebody who observed the mayor tootling around in a spanking new 2010 Expedition. He is correct about that. The guy even sent me a photo of the car. (see above)

“Sorry to disappoint the folks who like  to play ‘gotcha,’ but it was only a temporary vehicle…for use while the city was reassigning a different vehicle to the mayor,” Simpson said. “The city did not take title to that car, we do not hold a lease to it, and we don’t even have possession of it as it has already been returned.”

Amicone drove the new car around for about two weeks, added Simpson.

Simpson noted pointedly that the city is in the process of trying to get the mayor another SUV soon. However, it will be a car that was confiscated in a drug case  or from some other criminal activity—meaning that taxpayers won’t pay  anything except the gas and maintenance.

Simpson said it’s not yet clear whether forfeiture regulations will allow for such a use.

But if the mayor does get the SUV, I think they better make sure to scan the upholstery for leftover blood stains.

Count ‘em—there are now three separate investigations involving Gov. David Paterson. That’s not a lucky number.

There’s the latest scandal—the taking of free Yankee tickets for a the first game of the 2009 World Series that’s gotten and then allegedly lying under oath that he intended to pay for them. That’s gotten him in hot water with the state’s Public Integrity Commission and could get him in further trouble with the Albany District Attorney’s Office.

Then there’s the allegations that he pressured a woman to drop her bid for an order of protection against David Johnson, Paterson’s pal who assaulted the woman at a Halloween party.

And of course, there’s the probe by both the state Inspector General’s Office and the U.S. Attorney that there was very funny business involved in the selection of AEG, a politically connected firm, to run the racino at Acqudeduct.

Today I asked the political consultant and commentator Mike Edelman the question dejour: How much longer can Paterson last in office?

“Twenty-four hours,” Edelman said without hesitation.

Edelman said the tea leaves are in place for Paterson to resign some time tomorrow afternoon.

Paterson usually makes his bad-news announcements on Friday, for one thing. Also, Richard Ravitch, the lieutenant governor, has canceled all his meetings tomorrow. Finally, a  meeting concerning Paterson’s future, convened by Aal Sharpton,  is being  held tonight in Harlem—the governor’s  home base.

All of this, Edelman, predicted, adds up to adios.

Now here’s another number—five.

If Paterson were to resign, that means that come Jan. 1, 2011, New York will have a total of five governors in five calendar years.

That’s the hot topic of discussion tomorrow on “High Noon,” my weekly radio show on WVOX, 1460 AM. Tune in at 12 noon or go online at wvox.com.

We’ll examine how David Paterson can possibly continue to govern as he continues to face an onslaught of reports and allegations that he, the state police and two of his aides, may have tried to intervene in the case of a woman who was seeking a permanent order of protection against Paterson’s top flunky, David Johnson.

Now, the latest problem for Paterson is an ethics charge that he unlawfully secured five free tickets to a New York Yankees  game in 2009.

Paterson has been hanging on by his fingernails.

The People always come last in such things, though politicians claim that’s not so.

As it has turned out, Paterson, “the accidental governor,”  should’ve just accepted his role as a place-holder until a real executive could take over after the November, 2010 election. But somehow he felt entitled to run, despite piss-poor poll numbers. Here’s a guy who was a state senator from Harlem  for 20 years and never showed any ambition to be governor, and yet evidently felt that he was graced with the hand of destiny to be governor.

For weeks, he resisted calls for him not to run. He took this personally, despite the overwhelming odds that he couldn’t possibly win. So he decided to seize the cockamamie idea that he would overcome “obstacles” that were thrown in his path. He’s a fighter, who will prevail.

That was crazy. He came first.

Then when the Johnson flap hit The New York Times, he suddenly announced that he would not run, but stay on for the remaining 300 days as governor. That helped the Democratic Party, which wanted him out of the picture all along so that there wouldn’t be a bloody primary with their favorite, Attorney General Andrew Cuomo.

The party came second.

So who’s third in line of importance and consideration? The people are third.

All of this should be in reverse order. But that’s the state of political leadership today. It’s practically non-existent.

Sixty days into the new administration of Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino and two members of his inner circle—Larry Gottlieb and Ned McCormack—are apparently doing such a bang-up job that they are being  awarded with an $18,000 boosts in pay.

Actually I’m kidding. At least I’m kidding about the idea that these raises would be based on merit.

Clearly Astorino made a promise to McCormack and Gottlieb—perhaps before he took office—that he would make an effort to up their salaries to $155,245 some time down the road, Now he has made good on that promise. In any case, the raise proposal was officially in the works on Feb. 1 when Astorino sent the Board of Legislators an amendment to the county pay plan.

The Board approved the amendment, which involves new job titles as well as pay increases. Two Democratic legislators today cried  foul—Bill Burton of Ossining and Pete Harckham of Katonah.

Gottlieb, who formerly worked as a public relations trouble-shooter for the Indian Point nuke firm, Entergy, is Astorino’s director of economic development. McCormack is communications director and senior advisor.

Incidentally, the $155,245 amount is equivalent to the salary given to Sue Tolchin when she served as the deputy county executive under Andy Spano. Other top administrators also got that amount of dough in the old regime.

The timing on this is interesting. Nobody really cottons to the idea of giving out raises to government officials in the middle of the Great Recession, so Astorino must have been holding his breath with this.

Harckham seized on the economy theme when he said: “It is outrageous that in these punishing economictimes, when so many of my constituents are hurting financially, that the County Executive  would ask for an $18,000 raise for two polticial appointee who have been on the payroll for barely two months.”

Harckham says he hears tales of woe from constituents who can’t afford their mortgage payments and property taxes.

“No one is touting five figure raises, even if they still have a job,” he said.

This also comes at a time when a federal emergency bill to extend unemployment insurance and other expiring benefits for 1.2 million out-of-work citizens and small businesses is being blocked by a lone U.S. Senator—Jim Bunning of Kentucky. It’s unfair to link Astorino with the antics of Bunning but it does raise the general question: What comes first, the people or the operatives of government?

Bunning, in case you didn’t know, is a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame, who pitched a perfect game against the New York Mets in 1964. That really was his crowning achievement.

A friend just sent me  this joke. I guess it points the 14 percent approval rating currently enjoyed by the U.S. Congress.

One day a florist went to a Barber for a haircut. After the cut, he asked about his bill, and the Barber replied, ‘I cannot accept money from you , I’m doing community service this week.
The florist was pleased and left the shop. When the Barber went to open his shop the next morning, there was a ‘thank you’ card and a dozen roses waiting for him at his door.

Later, a cop comes in for a haircut, and when he tries to pay his bill, the Barber again replied, ‘I cannot accept money from you, I’m doing community service this week.’ The cop was happy and left the shop. The next morning when the Barber went to open up, there was a
‘thank you’ card and a dozen donuts waiting for him at his door.

Then a Congressman came in for a haircut, and when he went to pay his bill, the Barber again replied, ‘I can not accept money from you. I’m doing community service this week.’ The Congressman was very happy and left the shop.

The next morning, when the Barber went to open up, there were a dozen Congressmen lined up waiting for a free haircut. And that, my friends, illustrates the fundamental difference between the citizens of our country and the politicians who run it.

Several years ago when I was writing columns about the disgraced Yonkers School Superintendent Angelo Petrone who was convicted of perjury when he was investigated for giving a job to his daughter’s unqualified boyfriend, I was contacted by an anguished woman whose last name also was Petrone .

She was no relation. But she told me she couldn’t stand all the calls she was getting from people who assumed she had some connection to the aforesaid Angelo.

I kiddingly suggested she change her name.

Changing one’s notorious surname is apparently not all that uncommon. The New York Times reports that a number of people are coping with the annoyance of  sharing the name Madoff with the pyramid- scheming jailbird, Bernard Madoff—and some of them are taking the drastic step of legally changing their monikers.

One of them is Harriet Madoff of Rye, who, according to The Times “cannot even get a decent dinner reservation.” Worse, she owns a financial investment firm.

Can’t blame her.

Oh lord, here we go again. The personal lives of our political leaders continues to unravel in public.

No sooner did the news get out that Westchester County Legislator Gordon Burrows of Yonkers was busted for snorting cocaine in an upstate gas station, now White Plains Mayor Adam Bradley has seized the stage of ignominy with a report that he became embroiled in a “domestic dispute”  with wife on Saturday night.

Bradley, a Democrat and former assemblyman who ran unopposed for mayor in November, has schedule a press conference for 7 p.m.

Another misdemeanor, another embarrassing apology. What next?

Some readers thought I went too easy on Westchester County Legislator Gordon Burrows in yesterday’s column—and hell, I guess I could’ve slammed him more for getting busted for snorting a couple of lines of cocaine in upstate Queensbury. On the other hand, I didn’t write him a love letter either.

He really shamed himself and the office he holds. I thought I made that clear.If I didn’t then the readers I spoke to later certainly were crystal clear in their criticism.

The bottom line is that thhe whole affair, though “only” a misdemeanor,  just adds more fuel to the public perception that too many elected officials of  this state and country are self-centered  cases of arrested development who, if they’re not stealing us blind, are in the hip pockets of powerful lobbyists, have trouble keeping it in their pants or, as in the specific case of Burrows, compelled to ingest highly addictive blow through their nasal passages.

Readers were correct in pointing out the poor  example Burrows has set for children, who are supposed to look up to their leaders and maybe even aspire to be like them. Some wondered how he can continue  to sit on the public safety committee of the Board of Legislators and pass judgment on laws such as the measure to automatically impound cars in DWI arrests. This is particularly relevant in the case of Burrows who was the driver of the car parked in the gas station at the time of his arrest.

I had a rather strange and uncomfortable conversation with Burrows who admitted that he hoped that news of his arrest wouldn’t trickle down to Westchester. That the arrest was made on Feb. 5, but was not revealed by the Warren County Sherrif’s Office until Feb. 19, certainly should raise some questions about any possible efforts to keep the thing under wraps. A police official told me that the two-week delay in the press release was due to a “glitch” but he didn’t exactly elaborate.

Burrows is a Republican and comes from a prominent political family. It just so happens that Warren is among the reddest of red counties in the state with 20,753 active Republicans and 10,468 Democrats.  Queensbury also has a strong  GOP profile.

Here’s the breakdown on party affiliation in Queensbury:

Democrat: 4,451

Republican: 8,690

Independence: 871

Conservative: 205

Working Families : 53

Green: 40

Libertarian: 1

Not Affiliated (aka, Blank): 3,411

What can we conclude from this? Maybe nothing, except maybe  that the town’s lone Libertarian believes the people should be free to take drugs if they want to.  But at the very least we can say that Burrows was in politically friendly territory.

He goes to Queensbury Court on Monday.