With the clock ticking on Gov. David Paterson’s time in office, he’s starting to sound increasingly introspective about his short, yet jam-packed, term.

During an interview earlier today on WSYR’s The Jim Reith Show, Paterson admitted some of the mistakes he made after unexpectedly assuming office in March 2008 following ex-Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s prostitution scandal.

“Where I blame myself is as a legislator,” the governor said. “I was here for 21 years, 20 of them had late budgets, and I think I got caught up in the idea that the budget has to be on time.”

“…What I (was) trying to do (was) to show people that there’s leadership – that this person can come in and pass a budget in two, three weeks.”

In retrospect, Paterson said, this approach turned out to be more of a show of weakness than strength.

“What I did was show my hand,” he said. “They now knew that I wanted to pass budgets on time. And therefore when I didn’t get what I wanted, I would take what I got, and it was a mistake.”

“…This year I actually resisted the temptation to have the budget done on time,” Paterson continued. “And I don’t know whether it was the experience, or (that I) wasn’t running for re-election, but I just sat there and wouldn’t give in to what I knew were phony revenues and over-estimated cuts.”

In other words, he learned, in the style of the master Albany chess master, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, how to stall.

(Thanks to the intrepid intern Bryan Terry, who wrote the bulk of this post).

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