Two days after bailing on a Jeanine Pirro rally, leaving her to scramble for a last-minute fill-in (her children), Governor George Pataki injected a dose of stiff in his spine and made good on his promise to attend a Buffalo fund-raiser for Pirro-esquely doomed representative Tom Reynolds on Wednesday. Laura Bush also appeared, so maybe Pataki just went to nudge up against the only person in his party whose approval rating is still above Mao Tse-tung's. Considering how dreary the Albany-Buffalo commute is, it's nice that he made the effort.

When asked about Reynolds's role in covering up Mark Foley's inappropriate page handling (which now seems to go back further and further), Pataki said:

"I can't say that because I don't know enough about the internal workings, and what e-mail went where. But the appropriate step was for Congressman Foley to resign, he did, he probably should have done it a long time ago. But I think the onus is on him, and that should be investigated."

A boring quote and now "onus" seems like a dirty word. Considering Pataki's innate ability to make everything dull, we wish he would have stayed home. And when Reynolds loses his election, Pataki's presidential campaign staff will wish for the same thing.

First Lady Appears in Support of Reynolds [AP]