'He Enjoys Partying -- That's Nice!'

Want to know how the accidental governor David Paterson wound up where he is? Because Eliot Spitzer's aides were apparently so clueless they have no idea what the term "hard partier" means.

When Eliot Spitzer's top aides were mulling David Paterson as a potential running mate in the winter of 2005, two people who knew him cautioned that the Albany veteran was a "hard partier."

They were referring to Paterson's extramarital dalliances, past drug use and penchant for late-night clubbing. But Spitzer's people didn't get the message.

"We didn't know what 'hard partying' even meant," a former top Spitzer aide confessed to The Post. "Our idea of fun is to go exercise. The thinking was, 'He enjoys partying -- that's nice!' "

The warnings about the then-Senate minority leader were never even passed on to Spitzer, since they seemed beside the point.

"We didn't understand that it meant women or that it was in any way inappropriate. We didn't understand the lifestyle going on there."

It was just one of a comedy of errors that led to Paterson becoming New York's accidental governor and that has now left the state government in disarray as he struggles to survive a host of scandals.