Ahead of a major vote today on what might be the largest tax increase in state history, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver said that Governor Pataki is throwing a “temper tantrum.” We say escalate: The fact that Mr. Silver is fuming is proof that Mr. Pataki has gotten his attention. The most visible sign of the governor’s tantrum so far is that a Republican Assemblyman, Pat Casale, of Rensselaer County — who has gone against the governor — has been stripped of a committee assignment that paid $9,000 a year. Rensselaer County, it’s worth recalling, is the hometown of the rebelling Republican Senate majority leader, Joseph Bruno. Mr. Casale is an ally of the tax-raising Mr. Bruno, but the Assembly’s Republican minority leader, Chas. Nesbitt, is an ally of Mr. Pataki.

Some might say that such retaliation by the governor will cause collateral damage — that the governor is fighting dirty. On the contrary, if the governor were not turning the screws he would be failing to join the battle for New York’s economy. The battle has yet to be won, but the governor is fighting. Our William F. Hammond Jr. reports at Page 1 that several lawmakers, including Mr. Silver, claim that state agencies are under orders not to take phone calls from legislators. Other lawmakers said the governor’s aides were threatening to fire lawmakers’ friends and family members from patronage jobs.

People who have not personally betrayed the governor may be hurt, it seems. But a patronage job is fair game in politics. If all is fair in love and war, these political appointees came into their jobs in a time of political love — now it’s war.