Don't Stand Pat(erson)

Some day, this week's objet d'eBay,  a button promoting the now disbanded campaign of New York's "accidental" Governor David Paterson, will be worth millions.

No idea when. No idea on millions of what. Millions nonetheless. Sometime.

However, as a political relic, it might have been worth more if Davey had gained a bit more of wisdom from daddy. Basil Alexander Paterson is one of the "gang of four." Paterson, pere, Percey Sutton, David Dinkins and Charles Rangel are (were in the case of Sutton) well connected men who oiled the machinery behind the scenes of Harlem politics.Sutton recently passed; former Mayor Dinkins has been little more than a figurehead for years; Rangel is in the process of scandalizing himself into a loss of power base and possibly his seat in Congress; but Paterson continues as a force.

Did the father not talk to the son or did the son not listen? Perhaps one little conversation that would have kept the son from screwing up his chance at governor could have made all the difference — at least regarding the value of a campaign tchotchke.