State Senator calls Paterson 'coke-sniffing, staff-banging governor'

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) -- A New York senator angry at being ordered to stay in Albany by Gov. David Paterson called his fellow Democrat a "coke-sniffing, staff-banging governor."

The comment to some reporters by Sen. Kevin Parker of Brooklyn is one of the harshest criticisms of the governor by senators now in their third week of an internal power struggle that has shut down legislative action in the Senate.

As senators sought to go home for the weekend and resolve their dispute next week, Paterson ordered them to return to Albany indefinitely.

Paterson declined comment. When he replaced Eliot Spitzer as governor last year, Paterson admitted drug use when he was young and recent affairs during difficulties in his marriage. 

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