Yankees Tickets at Tip of Gov. Paterson's Iceberg

If Gov. David Paterson had merely taken World Series tickets from the Yankees without paying for them, that could be dismissed as good old-fashioned, Tammany Hall style, New York Democratic Party machine politics as usual.

The problem is the five tickets, supposedly valued at a suspiciously low $2,125, represent just the tip of the iceberg of a potentially titanic load of additional allegations pressuring Patterson to vacate the governor's mansion.

The allegations being investigated include, but are not necessarily limited to, the dubious award of a state racetrack concession and the back room quashing of a court protective order in a domestic dispute that would likely have proved embarrassing to one of Patterson's cronies.

"The writing is on the wall. It's on the ceiling. It's on the floor. It's on the windows," Baruch College political science Prof. Doug Muzzio told the USA Today.

Yes, the handwriting is clear, so clear that not even a blind man could miss it.