ALBANY - Carl Paladino, his gubernatorial campaign less than 24 hours old, went on the attack

today, linking Attorney General Andrew Cuomo to the nation's subprime meltdown, tagging

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver as the leader of a corrupt Capitol and questioning the

intelligence of Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown.

"Get ready for the ride," the Buffalo businessman told reporters at the Capitol of his

fledgling campaign.

While he repeated a number of themes from his announcement speech the night before in

Buffalo, Paladino made more stinging and pointed attacks on Cuomo - the Democrats' presumptive

nominee - than the two other Republicans in the race have offered up combined.

As the nation's housing secretary during the Clinton administration, Cuomo put pressure on

lenders to give mortgages to people unable to afford them, Paladino said.

"Andrew destroyed their lives ... It's disgusting," Paladino said of the mortgages,

thousands of which collapsed during the subprime crisis.

Paladino accused Cuomo of pushing the mortgage agenda to help prop up the Clinton

administration and "in the name of Andrew's political career."

Besides hurting poor people, Cuomo's housing push also ended up affecting millions of other

homeowners who saw their houses devalued and investments reduced as a result of the subprime

mortgage crisis, Paladino said.

Paladino said other officials from the Clinton and Bush administrations were involved, but

called Cuomo the "initiator of the problem."

Some Republicans have quietly whispered that Paladino's bid is being helped along by some

intent on disrupting the Republican Party, which would end up helping Cuomo.

But Paladino, while sharply critical of his Republican foes, offered his most biting

commentary of Cuomo.

"Andrew does what's right for Andrew. There's something wrong with that guy," he said on

WGDJ, an Albany radio station.

Later, meeting with reporters who cover the Capitol, he said Cuomo is only interested in

becoming governor so he can run for president. Many Democrats have said Cuomo is eyeing a 2016

White House run.

"It's a way station on the way to be president," Paladino said of Cuomo's political

ambitions.

But he wasn't done with Cuomo. He said Cuomo has tried to look tough with prosecutions on

Wall Street.

"But he can't find any crime here in Albany?" Paladino said of corruption at the Capitol.

And he went after Cuomo for not suing, as a dozen or so other attorneys general have done,

the federal government over the new health care law promoted by President Obama.

A Cuomo spokesman declined immediate comment.

Paladino is in Albany today before heading to New York later this afternoon to meet with

Republicans and more media interviews.

Before leaving the Capitol, though, he again suggested Silver is a criminal for not

releasing information about his private trial lawyer side business, and said big words "are

confusing" to Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown.

He also had some barbs for Republican Party Chairman Ed Cox for backing Suffolk County

Executive Steve Levy's run for the GOP nomination. Levy just became a Republican.

"He's a very confused man," Paladino said of Cox, who he said "drove a wedge" into the

party. Paladino said he will try to get enough support at the upcoming state GOP nominating

convention to get a place on the ballot, but will go the other route — collecting enough

signatures from enrolled Republicans — to force a primary this fall against Levy or the

other Republican, Rick Lazio, a former Long Island member of Congress.

When he wasn't attacking politicians he said have been a part of the cycle of corruption and

neglect in Albany, Paladino pushed his plan — albeit a still developing one — for

a smaller government, business tax cuts and a crackdown on welfare payments to people who move

to New York.

Hear Paladino's speech Monday announcing his candidacy: