When asked last week if the “current delays at the World Trade Center came as a result of mistakes in his administration,” former Governor George Pataki, gave this incredulous answer:  “That’s utter nonsense!”

Frankly, his attempt at historic revisionism was utter nonsense!

In the aftermath of the 9/11 tragedy, George Pataki bet his gubernatorial legacy on the rebuilding of Ground Zero and lost.  Five years of mishaps on his watch proved the ineptitude of an administration that discarded core principles and attempted to govern by press release.  If Pataki had stood by the belief he expressed in his first term – that government should not be in the commercial real-estate business – lower Manhattan would not be referred to today as “Pataki’s Pit.”

Viewing the mess at the end of the Pataki administration, political columnist John Podhoretz declared:  “Through a poisonous combination of arrogance, indolence, cowardice and foolishness, Pataki has made sure that the crater created by al Qaeda will remain unfilled for at least nine years…. Remember, this was the most important and visible public works project in our lifetime.  Pataki didn’t bother to get it right.  He didn’t bother much at all.  His carelessness with this world-historical matter makes him unfit to serve even one more day as governor.”

As a result of his failed Ground Zero leadership, George Pataki is a national laughing stock.  All the revisionist hype in the world will not be able to paper over the Pataki administration’s mismanagement, arrogance, incompetence and corruption.

This entry was posted on September 14, 2008 at 1:18 pm and is filed under Pataki-SCC. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.