Forgive Caroline Kennedy if she is feeling a little upbeat today. She knows revenge is a dish best eaten cold and David Paterson was just served up one very chilly desert. He will not run for governor again and will be very lucky to hold onto the job until November.

His failure to nominate Kennedy when she wanted the senate seat is the root of all his troubles.Why he failed to do so will go down as one of the most boneheaded decisions ever made by a New York politician. After that he was a dead man walking

He upset the entire political hierarchy and painted a target on his back for The New York Times who have now proceeded to finish his career in politics. Maybe it would have happened anyway but I can't see the Times pursuing a Paterson vendetta if he had chosen Caroline.

Remember the circumstances. Hillary had gone to the State Department and Caroline had expressed interest in the seat.

Paterson, who had decent enough approval numbers at the time decided to dilly and dally before finally shafting Kennedy in favor of the colorless Kirstin Gillibrand.

Big no no. Caroline was running with the approval of the Democratic Party elite who had tolerated Paterson to that point.

Not for long. They have taken direct aim since and now have his scalp.

It is possible to feel sorry for Paterson, the accidental governor who seemed to make a fist of it in the early going but it all came apart after the Kennedy snub.

Now he will go down as a historical quirk, a nonentity who got to office by a sex scandal and leaves pretty much because of another one.

How he must wish he had that Kennedy decision back just one more time.