Rangel loses chairmanship, Paterson pushed to the brink…

Charlie Rangel just got bumped from his top dog post in the House Ways and Means Committee — a position, by the way, that benefited New Yorkers hugely.

Meanwhile, every newspaper in the Empire state is suggesting that Governor David Paterson find someplace other than the governor’s mansion to spend the next year.

What is it about New York state politics? Joe Bruno, convicted. Eliot Spitzer, disgraced.

Heck, even our former state Comptroller Alan Hevesi couldn’t keep out of trouble.

And how many of these numbskulls crashed and burned over stupid stuff?

Don’t they have aides and assistants and wives?

Doesn’t anyone ever tug their sleeve and say, “You know, David, if you make that phone call you could wreck your entire life? Oh — and betray the trust of the people who elected you?”

Sigh.