Posted on 02/07/2005 3:50:58 AM PST by Liz
Angry state Repub licans aren't buying Gov. Pataki's claim that his wife's $50,000-a-year "assistant" was a political operative and not a personal servant.
"I've never seen her at any political event, either for the governor or for the Republican Party," said a senior New York Republican, referring to Michelle Stubbs, who The Post disclosed last week was secretly hired by the state GOP as Libby Pataki's gopher and maid.
"The first time I saw her was when her picture was in The Post," the GOP operative continued. "Ask the county [GOP] chairmen if they ever saw her at an event or if they ever dealt with her to schedule the first lady at an event.
"The governor's people are on the record saying Stubbs is the first lady's political aide and scheduler, but what events did she schedule or attend?"
The operative also questioned how Stubbs — who lives near the Pataki mansion in Garrison, Putnam County — could run up $50,000 in expenses since being hired in 1999, as state campaign finance records show.
"Roundtrip from Garrison to Albany is probably $25 in gas and tolls.
"If Stubbs went to Albany once a week for five years, it would have been $1,300 a year for a total of $6,500 in total travel expenses," the operative continued.
So far, neither Pataki nor state GOP Chairman Stephen Minarik has provided a detailed job description for Stubbs or a breakdown of her expense reimbursements.
Meanwhile, the admission by an aide to the governor that Stubbs ferried state-purchased food from the unused Governor's Mansion on Eagle Street in Albany to the Pataki Mansion in Garrison has sparked some sarcastic humor from state Democrats.
"We're calling it McMansion, the source of state-funded take-out for the governor," quipped a high level Democratic official.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
Good point. Were the Patakis getting kickbacks---pocket change----in addition to the millions they were racking up doing insider deals?
Hear that sound? It's the "Pataki for Prez '08" campaign exploding.
Exactly. If a personal maid is being paid $50,000...where do I apply? LOL
Sweet, sweet sound it is...although the RINO had a snowball's chance of getting the Repub nod.
The "royal" mindset of these "public servants" is atrocious, like they're entitled to privileges and perks the citizens don't have.....and the expectation that the citizens should cough up the bucks for their royal luxuries.
Republican donors never figured their bucks would subsidize a maid for the gov's wife.
One FReeper posted that the Patakis managed to build a huge house in Garrison when he was lowly local legislator making a nothing salary.
And let's please not forget that Libby Patatki---the one with the maid----is also doing the insider deals for the gov.
The Village Voice and The New York Times have reported extensively on the Patakis’ main source of wealth, the good will of an old college friend, Richard Hayden.
Hayden arranged a consulting job for Mrs. Pataki with a family medical-devices business and has involved her as a partner in lucrative land deals. As if the word does not get around that the governor's wife is involved in land deals.....All those hard-to-get EPA and county and municipal planning board approvals better come through....or else.
Libby's lobbying and being in on land deals as a token partner when she knows nothing about the business, is a little nauseating.
She's obviously included b/c her husband is governor. It's completely disingenuous for the Pataki's and their spokesmen to deny this is so.
It's been reported Mrs. Pataki was paid more than $339,000 in 2003.....for her work "as a vaguely defined consultant to businesses and charities."
Most of her "clients" are linked to friends and political supporters of Gov Pataki, and some of those friends also have interests before the state."
Pataki's got his wife hustling for the day when he leaves office and becomes a nobody.
At least the Pataki's can live in the lap of luxury while Pataki ponders how being a pro-abortion RINO short-circuited his political ambitions to be president.
Laugh it up, bright guy. What have your party's pols been up to...?
Pataki for president??? Ha!
Believe it or not, lovers of the liberty, the constitution and more specifically the 2nd amendment were better off under Cuomo. For the first 2 of his 3 winning election, I received pro Pataki literature from the NRA including "Support Freedom, Elect Pataki" bumper stickers. Cuomo being a dyed in the wool anti gunner. Funny thing happened in his second term....Pataki turned on his constituency and proposed and received draconian gun bills that layered more repression upon us already repressed NY gun owners. Previously when Mr. Cuomo would propose like measures, he would receive backing of the Democrat assembly, but the upstate dominant Republican state senate would stone wall his attempts leaving them in limbo. Of course with their own boy in the governors mansion, the State Senate shooed these awful bills into law.
Last election I voted for the third party clown Galisano as my protest vote. The democrat candidate would have at least elicited gridlock....far better than what we got with Pataki.
Pataki for president???? not as standard barer of the Republican party...never happened never will....(and that goes for Rudy too)
Roundtrip from Garrison to Albany is probably $25 in gas and tolls.
''If Stubbs went to Albany once a week for five years, it would have been $1,300 a year for a total of $6,500 in total travel expenses,...''
Was the 'maid' operating her own vehicle? If so, round trip from Albany to Garrison is approx. 210 miles. 210 miles X 37.5 cents per mile (2004 business mileage rate) = $78.75 per trip. $78.75 x 52 trips per year = $4095 per year x 5 years = $20,745.00 vehicle mileage expense. Plus meals. [individual results may vary ;-)]
Haven't been following this story but I can never resist an invitation to crunch the numbers.
Not to defend the expenditures at all, but could she not be staying in a hotel four or five nights a week in Albany while on her alleged business there? If so, you would have to calculate that expense plus the normal per diem. So they could at least explain it that way.
What have the Dims been up to? Try Speaker Silver's coverup of the guy who drugged and raped the young interns. Not to mention the insider deals going on full-scale....too numerous to mention.
...could she not be staying in a hotel four or five nights a week in Albany while on her alleged business there?
Absolutely. 200 mile round trip = 4 hours drive time in good weather. Never been in that neck of woods so don't know about things like traffic congestion but assume that winter driving conditions get dicey. Even w/o that, a 4 hour roundtrip commute doesn't leave much time in a normal working day to accomplish tasks.
This is the EXACT same scam the Toon pulled down in Arkansas while he was Governor. What's the big deal?
FREDRIC U. DICKER
Lol! Sounds like grade school humor.
Thank G-d.
And his re-election chances or running against Hillary are now history as well.
Just goes to show, that even though corruption is endemic to the Donks, it is not, by any means, limited to them.
why settle for prez when he's already King George?
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