Governor David Paterson And The I-Man: Together At Last!

It took a year to get him here, but New York Governor David Paterson promised it wouldn't take a year to get him back. Besides, he had some dirt on Imus that few people — including Imus himself — would remember.

"I heard your first show on December 2, 1971," said Paterson, then a student at Columbia University. "You know what I remember? You missed the second show."

But Imus made it to the studio today, and asked Paterson about a number of issues, including news that Paterson's son Alex was taken into police custody yesterday.

"He was not arrested," Paterson clarified. "He was questioned and released about a matter...there were a bunch of kids playing a dice game. The principal said the kids play this game all the time. No money was involved. It wasn't gambling."

Alex also allegedly had someone else's debit card on him, which the Governor said he and a friend had found near a garbage can on the subway. "They thought it was thrown away," he explained, adding that there had been no charges put on the card.

As for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's comment describing Barack Obama as "light-skinned" and lacking a "Negro dialect," Paterson said it demonstrates a preference for certain people over others, whether due to race, intelligence, or any other factor.

"It has to make anyone who doesn't look that way feel, what chance is there for me in society?" he said. "The whole thing about Barack Obama's ascension to President — even for the people who voted against him — was the greatness of this country that a person such as him could be elected president."

Paterson pardoned Reid on the grounds that, "If the President forgives him, I forgive him too." He acknowledged that the issue of race has not been resolved in America, even within the black community itself.

"It's not necessarily that it's black people that are creating the problem," said Paterson. "I have an assistant, a very effective gentleman that works for me. He's 6-foot-6, a brown-skinned, African-American man. Every time we're in a meeting, seemingly every time, somebody makes a reference to him as if he's on the security detail. And he never has been."

Paterson, who is legally blind, recalled the irony of being made fun of by other African-American kids because of his disability. He thought they would have better understood discrimination, he said, "because we were all a part of it."

He's still happy with his choice of Senator Kirsten Gillibrand to fill Hillary Clinton's seat, saying Gillibrand understands the issues better than anyone because, as a Congresswoman, she won a district in upstate New York that "had been Republican since the Peloponnesian Wars."

But she's facing a potential challenge in the Democratic primary from none other than Imus's pal-turned-backstabbing-weasel Harold Ford, Jr. "Of course, I picked Senator Gillibrand, so I'd be supporting her," said Paterson. "But it's an open primary."

He would, he added, support Ford, should Ford win the nomination.

The Governor faces an uphill battle to election himself, with Attorney General and fellow Democrat Andrew Cuomo breathing down his neck. Paterson balked at Cuomo's recent grandstanding about inflated Wall Street salaries and bonuses.

"Wall Street is the engine of our economy," he said, comparing it to the auto industry in Michigan, corn in Iowa, and oil in Texas. "If there was corruption on Wall Street, they should prosecute it. If there was wrongdoing, it should be taken into account. But here we are, those of us who represent New York, destroying a whole industry that really has been the hallmark of our economic development."

Despite Imus's cajoling, Paterson would not "say something really evil" about Cuomo. He was willing, however, to be vicious toward "Saturday Night Live," which has repeatedly poked fun at his blindness.

"I can take a joke, and I can take a joke about my disability," he said. What Paterson cannot take is the portrayal of people with disabilities as inept. "Nearly 70 percent of blind and legally blind people in this country are not working. This is what stops small business owners or bosses from hiring people who would be effective employees."

For the record, Paterson said he doesn't "bounce off walls," despite SNL cast member Fred Armisen's portrayal of him doing so. "If anybody at 'Saturday Night Live' would like to have me on...maybe I could bounce a few left hands off of them."

-Julie Kanfer