And let's not forget that he endorsed Cuomo for governor when Pataki ran as a Conservative and pubbie in 1994, the year the pubbies took Congress, after which the bent one said, "the era of big government was over", IIRC.
The MSM would love to set up a RINO as a viable third party nominee like McCain or Giuliani, ala Perot. Take a guess at the likely scenario.
The way things are shaping up right now it looks like Hillary is pretty much a sure thing to be given the Democrats' nomination. (The Democrats love to nominate corrupt traitors.) Meanwhile, the GOP primaries could be a drawn-out mess of Giuliani vs. McCain vs. Pataki vs. Owens vs. Romney vs. Frist vs. whoever else decides to jump in.
Hillary will probably get to save all her money for the general election while the RINOs slug it out with the sort-of RINOs and the future RINOs. Not good news.