David Paterson and the Bombshell Manqué.

via L.I. Business News. Used via Creative Commons.

Brother Serwer has already weighed in on the New York Timesnon-story about Gov. Paterson and political aide David Johnson. For those keeping score in the war of old media versus new, it’s worth noting that the New York Times wasn’t hyping this story as the imminent collapse of David Paterson’s career; the blogosphere was.

David Johnson’s contribution to Paterson’s office is political savvy, which he’s clearly demonstrated to his colleagues and to his principal. He’s a political aide, not a policy specialist or a public official. Maybe the folks pushing/following this story are frustrated by the idea that you don’t have to be a perpetual undergrad-type to have something worth saying about/in American politics? I’m not sure what the story is otherwise: man with skeletons in closet forges a life in politics? Say it ain’t so.

This isn’t a Good Governance story; it’s a tone-deaf complaint that David Johnson is a man out of place, too…something to belong in or near high office. But the only thing bizarre and out of place here is the standard.

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