New York's New Love Gov Has Ex-Girlfriends on the Payroll: What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

David Paterson has really gotten off to a hot start as New York's new governor. Hours after being sworn in Monday he divulged that he and his wife, Michelle, both had affairs while they were undergoing a "rocky patch" in their marriage.

Now, however, we're finding out Paterson was sleeping with seemingly half the state, has an ex-girlfriend on the payroll, has another ex-girlfriend claiming she slept with him recently with email correspondence purportedly backing up her claims, may have used campaign money to pay for rooms at the Day's Inn.

On the upside, there's no reports he was using $1000 an hour hookers, having three-way sandwiches with Jim McGreevey or that he attended Jeremiah Wright's church.

First we have the account of numerous infidelities.

Just one day after taking office, Gov. Paterson yesterday admitted to cheating on his wife with "a number of women," including one who currently works in his new office.

A number of women? OK, how many?

Paterson said the affair took place several years ago and were in response to his wife's own infidelities, although he later claimed he was not seeking to blame his wife, Michelle Paige Paterson, for his serial philandering.

Smooth move, dude, throwing the wife under the bus.

"Several years ago, there were a number of women," Paterson, joined by his wife, confessed during a news conference.

He said he came forward just a day after his ascension to governor and days after Spitzer's links to prostitutes became public because he knew of rumors swirling around him. "I didn't want it hanging over my head," he said.

"I didn't want to be compromised.

"I didn't want to be blackmailed. I didn't want to hesitate taking an action because a person on the other end might hurt me or my family, so I just thought that this was the time to come forward and reveal this."

Not to nitpick, but since it's quite apparent these New York Democrats are incapable of keeping their trousers zipped, maybe when Paterson was being vetted to run as Lieutenant Governor under Spitzer, he should have been forthcoming at that time.

The new governor insisted he did not spend any state money and did not "knowingly" use campaign cash on the relationships.

Nice parsing there, Dave.

Yesterday, he confessed to cheating with several women, including one whom sources identified as Lila Kirton, who followed Spitzer from the Attorney General's Office to the governor's New York City office as the $150,000-a-year director of community affairs.

So he didn't want to be subjected to blackmail and instead preempts that by putting his girlfriend in a $150,000 job.

Nice.

Meanwhile, another member of his harem, one Diane Dixon, a former Olympic champion, has tapes and emails and claims their affair was much more recent, meaning while he was Lt. Governor.

An attractive Olympic gold-medalist says she had a close personal relationship with Gov. Paterson earlier this year - during which time she recorded a series of secret telephone conversations with him.

Track-and-field athlete Diane Dixon, of Brooklyn, also told The Post that she had received a private message yesterday morning from Paterson, asking if she was speaking with the media.

Dixon, 43, said Paterson, 53, was "mostly responsible" for getting her a badly needed job earlier this month with the city Department of Education in Crown Heights' District 17.

The job pays in the range of $48,000 to $65,000 a year, records show.

OK, so that's now two ex-girlfriends on the public payroll cashing in to the tune of at least $200,000.

Hello, New York taxpayers! Feeling like suckers yet?

So, how many more women will be coming forward?

The editorial pages are trying to be kind. Newsday says he weakened right from the start.

The New York Times says this is all unfortunate. Somehow I doubt they'd feel the same way if he were a Republican.

The New York Post demands we get a full accounting, now, or he may not have much time left.

David Paterson needs to take a deep breath, resolve to tell the full truth about girlfriends past and present - he brought up the subject, after all - and then go ahead and do it.

Tell the truth, that is.

His incumbency is hanging in the balance, and he doesn't have much time left.

Can you say Governor Bruno, boys and girls?

Thanks to Hot Air for the link.