New N.Y. Governor Admits to Numerous Extramarital Affairs

Now some fresh pickings from the Political Grapevine:

Big Apple Surprise

New Yorkers woke up Tuesday morning to learn that their governor had been having an extramarital affair for a number of years, and had met the other woman for trysts at an Upper West Side hotel, where they would stay together.

This was not the outgoing Gov. Spitzer, he of the high-priced call girls. It was David Paterson, the man sworn in Monday as the state's new Democratic governor.

Paterson confirmed the affair to the New York Daily News, which reported that Paterson's wife also acknowledged that she too had had affairs.

The couple said it all happened some years ago during difficulties in their marriage they both said have been overcome.

But it doesn't end there. In a news conference late Tuesday the governor said he was involved with numerous women, including a woman on the state payroll who worked in Spitzer's office at the time. That woman will presumably now work for Paterson.

Brite for Wright

Texas Christian University in Fort Worth is not pleased that Reverend Jeremiah Wright, the fiery Obama pastor, will be honored by the Brite Divinity School located on the TCU campus.

But Brite is a separate institution and says it absolutely will give Wright its fourth annual State of the Black Church Award at a dinner March 29.

The school said that contrary to media claims, Wright does not preach racial hatred, but is known as, quote, "A faithful preacher of the gospel who has ministered in a context radically different from that of many middle class Americans."

Lonely Lot

A newly released survey indicates that conservatives in the national press corps are a lonely lot. 585 journalists were polled by the project for excellence in journalism.

Only six percent said they considered themselves conservative and only two percent said they were very conservative. This compares with the 36 percent of the overall population that describes itself as conservative.

Most journalists, 53 percent, said they were moderate. 24 percent said they were liberal and eight percent very liberal.

The Washington Times quotes project deputy director Amy Mitchell as saying that the findings are about the same as in a similar survey four years ago.

Bag Ban

Several big cities in the U.S. and elsewhere have either taken action to ban plastic grocery bags or are considering it.

But now scientists and environmentalists say the premise that the bags are harmful to animals and nature is based on flawed research.

The London Times reports the whole thing started with a misinterpretation of a 1987 Canadian study that found more than 100,000 marine animals had been killed in a three-year period by discarded fishing nets.

15 years later — in 2002 — a study commissioned by the Australian government misquoted the Canadian study and attributed the deaths to plastic bags. In 2006 the authors changed "plastic bags" to "plastic debris" then admitted that the original study did in fact refer to fishing tackle.

— FOX News Channel's Martin Hill contributed to this report.