Alex: Tim Murphy. Question: Who is Mass Lt. Gov?

I got a little scare last night when Ellen stumbled for a second over the question, who is the lieutenant governor of Massachusetts, where she lives?. This was after I pointed out in yesterday's posting that Cornell PhD government grad students didn't know who Richard Ravitch is. Then she came through with Tim Murphy, which would be a good guess for the name of anyone in the Bay State, and in this case the correct answer as well.

I got the classic comment about the office being worth about as much a a glass of warm spit, which actually might have been first used to did describe vice president. And someone pointed out that New Jersey seems to get along (not that well, let's face it) without one. It is handy to have someone waiting in the wings to take over when the sitting governor resigns because he admits he is having an affair with a boyfriend with his wife tearily at his side. But that's what then-N.J. Gov. James McGreevey did in 2006. The president of the senate had to take over.

There are also some who theorize that the worst thing Eliot Spitzer did to New York was make David Paterson his running-mate, even though he knew his limitations.

And maybe, who knows, Ravitch will turn out to be one of the best things Paterson did for New York, since he has devised a way out of the fiscal mess as well as getting the Court of Appeals to agree the appointment was legal.But I guess it's a good thing he's not running for election as governor, since he seems to have trouble attracting attention to himself, at least on the Cornell campus.