Archbishop Praying for Gov. David Paterson

MYFOXNY.COM - Archbishop Timothy Dolan of the Archdiocese of New York was in Albany Tuesday for a meeting with Gov. David Paterson. We asked him why a nice guy like him was doing a place like Albany.

"Not giving the Last Rites," he said, in his typical humor. In all seriousness, he said he was there to offer the invocation at the session of the Legislature and to speak to the governor.

The archbishop told Paterson that he his praying for him.

"And he was very grateful for that," Dolan said.

The visit came a day when the acting superintendent for the State Police, Pedro Perez, retired. Just a week ago, his boss -- Harry Corbitt -- did the same thing. Both are implicated in the scandal surrounding the governor's administration.

Paterson tried to go about budget business and avoid talk of scandal Tuesday. He said he was meeting with conferences of lawmakers.

Even Sen. Dean Skelos, the Republican leader, said that he wasn't interested in talk of the governor's possible resignation or impeachment because the budget was priority number one.

Meantime, a new poll indicates that the approval rating of the man running the investigation, Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, has dropped 13 points, and 22 points among nonwhite voters.