“I’ll tell you what the lieutenant governor’s job is. You wake up every morning at 6:30 and you call the governor’s house. If he answers, you can go back to sleep.”

— Then Lt.-Gov. David Paterson, circa 2007

“[My opponent Kathy Hochul] is going to play the traditional, lackey-like position of lieutenant governor, which in my view is the waste of a constitutional position that the public needs in Albany.”

— Democrat Timothy Wu, characterizing the office of lieutenant governor almost the same way Paterson did seven years earlier

“Mr. Wu needs a wakeup call. Take it from me, this is not a job you can take lightly.”

— Paterson now, criticizing Wu for saying almost exactly what Paterson said about the job of lieutenant governor in 2007