The usually astute Elizabeth Benjamin falls for some spin that tries to make the case that the NY Times story about Governor Paterson’s aide is somehow good news for former State Senator Hiram Monserrate (D, R, D, ?)

http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/dailypolitics/2010/02/johnsons-loss-monserrates-gain.html

She writes –

It has now been suggested to me by two different political operatives that the person who most stands to benefit from today's Times story on Gov. David Paterson's body man, David Johnson, is not the governor's likely primary opponent, AG Andrew Cuomo, but expelled Sen. Hiram Monserrate.

….

So, one guy with a YO record of felony offenses rises to a senior administration post and is paid $132,000, while another guy, who was elected by the voters in his district, later charged with felony assault and eventually convicted on a misdemeanor assault charge is deemed unfit to serve and ousted from his seat by his colleagues.

At the very least, this whole uproar over Paterson and the Times, which may or may not be working on additional stories about the governor (it's hard to believe this one thing is all that came of weeks worth of work), has deflected attention from Monserrate

Since the decision about whether Hiram gets his job back will be decided by the Federal Courts and they don’t make decisions based on either allegations of hypocrisy by Governors or whether attention has been deflected, I don’t see how this helps Hiram.

And if Hiram loses in court and runs in the Special Election, it’s hard for me to see how an obscure staffer’s alleged wrongdoings help Monserrate beat the Democratic-WFP candidate.