‘Pataki’s Last 100 Days Could Yet Produce Surprises In Albany’

It is pathetic to see Governor Pataki running off to Iowa thinking he’s presidential material while he’s governing a sinking ship at home. The front page article on “Pataki’s Last 100 Days Could Yet Produce Surprises In Albany” [New York, October 2, 2006] reported the top items on the legislative agenda to be hospital closures, legislative pay raises, charter schools, the reappointment of Jeff Wiesenfeld to the City University of New York board of trustees, among others. Rather, this lame-duck governor should be campaigning here in New York State to keep the “money-losing” hospitals open and instead should overhaul the health care industry by fighting to divert the billions of dollars in annual waste, fraud, and abuse from the Medicaid industry and from the Service Employees International Union Local 1199 to these hospitals and other charitable causes that need these funds. We are also watching Mr. Pataki’s performance in his last 100 days on expanding the charter school cap and reappointing Mr. Wiesenfeld, who champions higher academic standards, to determine whether Mr. Pataki is presidential material or not.