'Hey. You're a Disgrace. Get Out'

Do the New York Democrats have the stones to say this to David Paterson?

We may soon find out.

Top New York Democrats have privately set a deadline of early November for Gov. Paterson to turn his poll numbers around or they'll urge him not to run next year.

"The idea is to let him get through the budget and get through the summer," said a prominent Democratic donor who sees the fall elections as the cutoff for Paterson's improvement.

"Nobody really wants to go to a sitting Democratic governor who's African-American and say, 'Hey. You're a disgrace. Get out.'"

Paterson allies hold out hope he'll be able to mount a timely comeback, but admit his historically low job approval rating - a March Siena poll pegged it at 19% - presents a significant challenge.

"Even if he went up 100%, it wouldn't be much," the donor said. "The goal is to be close to 50, but I think if he could climb over 40%, he can begin to show real momentum."

The question is: Can he do it in time?

It took just two months for Paterson's favorability rating to plunge from 54% to 29% - a rate Siena poll spokesman Steve Greenberg called "staggering."

Meanwhile, it appears a tax proposal by the accidental governor was killed by a his father's own law firm.

Ouch.

The law firm where Harlem political legend Basil Paterson is a senior partner has become so powerful, it managed to kill a tax proposal backed by his son, the governor, but strongly opposed by the firm's labor clients.

Not only did the influential firm of Meyer, Suozzi, English & Klein help kill the tax on some types of health insurance -- which could have generated $120 million a year for the state by 2010 -- it also was credited with steering millions of dollars worth of government contracts and grants to unions over the past year, records show.

Showing no signs of slowing down, the elder Paterson, 83, a former state senator and deputy mayor, is co-chair of the lucrative labor-law practice. He personally represents some of the state's most powerful unions, including the United Federation of Teachers.

He is in regular contact with his son.

"They talk all the time and, since David has always lived in the shadow of his highly accomplished father, he's always trying to please him," said an associate of the governor.