George Pataki sucking down a bottle of Sam Adams at Thursday night’s mega-conservative ball, hosted by the Committee on Western Civilization at the City Museum. If you had any doubt Pataki’s gunning for 2008, it’s over. Be afraid. Be very afraid. There he was, courting the likes of Justice Scalia, Al Regnery, the National Review gang, and other assorted right-wing luminaries.

Was the bottle-swigging routine a sop to the Red-State-Commoners in attendance? Actually, my drinking sources report Pataki was chugging longnecks on election night, 1994, when he first won the governorship. He’ll need all the authenticity points he can earn by 2008, to make up for his record.