Cuddly Carl Paladino tones down tough talk enough to discuss issues, even apologizes to Pataki

The new campaign moves came after a strategy session with Pataki on Monday - a powwow that began with Paladino apologizing for calling the former governor a "degenerate idiot" in a July interview with the Daily News.

"We got past that," Paladino told WOR-AM radio yesterday. "I had some distress after he left office that the Republican Party was left without succession."

Paladino campaign manager Michael Caputo said Pataki graciously accepted the apology and offered to provide guidance for the campaign.

He stopped short of offering a formal endorsement, however.

Sources said Pataki asked Paladino how he was "going to translate the vein of anger that he's tapped into into a positive agenda to move forward."

It's one reason, a source close to the campaign admits, that Paladino chose yesterday to announce his plans to create a four-person economic panel to help him cut taxes 10%.

He still served up a healthy portion of partisan red meat against rival Andrew Cuomo. "He didn't expect a real contender, and he has one now and he has a problem," Paladino said.

For the most part, Paladino sought to tamp down his "Crazy Carl" rep and focused on issues such as slashing state spending and the perils of a property tax cap.

"This is not an election that defines Democrat versus Republican," he said. "This is an election that defines the establishment ruling class versus the people. The people are upset."

Meanwhile, the 67,000-member Buffalo AFL-CIO demanded Paladino return a $1.4 million tax break he received for a company that created only one job.

"Keeping those tax dollars - our tax dollars - would reveal that your professed commitment to clamp down on government waste is just a hollow promise," union boss Michael Hoffert wrote.

Paladino said the union was simply doing Cuomo's "bidding." The News revealed on Monday that Paladino is fighting to hold on to the major tax break.