Dinkins to Paterson: Stop Being An Idiot

Okay, my headline is a wee bit excessive, but the point is the same. Former Mayor David Dinkins, who was a miserable failure as Mayor of New York City, told Governor David Paterson to stick it with those comments that he was being assailed and criticized as governor because the media was being racist.

Mr. Dinkins was reacting to comments Mr. Paterson made in a radio interview on Friday that he was the victim of a racially motivated news media campaign to keep him from running for election next year.

“We’re not in the post-racial period,” Mr. Paterson said in the interview. “My feeling is it’s being orchestrated, it’s a game, and people who pay attention know that.”

Mr. Dinkins, who has been close to the Paterson family for decades, took issue with the governor’s comments.

“Definitely he should get off the racist thing,” Mr. Dinkins said. “Right or wrong, it’s a fight you sure can’t win.”

Mr. Dinkins also questioned whether Mr. Paterson really believed there was an orchestrated, biased campaign against him in the news media. “I don’t think he means they’re picking on him because he is black,” Mr. Dinkins said. “I suspect he more means, were he not black — and maybe it’s pretty hard to make the distinction — those kind of comments would not have been made.”

In explaining the distinction, Mr. Dinkins, who spoke to Mr. Paterson’s aides but not Mr. Paterson over the weekend, said: “One is a very positive effort to attack, to demean. The other is more an analysis after the fact.”

When Dinkins is telling you straight up that you're a failure, you know you're entering rare territory.

Paterson has been trying to explain away his failed efforts as governor as some kind of orchestrated racist campaign, claiming that the media doesn't want to see too many successful African American politicians.

What I see is a man who was fundamentally a nice guy when he was in the State Senate, but who is now completely out of his league as Governor.