Larry Silverstein could learn a lesson from Mayor Bloomberg’s losing quest for a West Side Stadium: Sometimes the jig is up even while you’re still fighting.

Mr. Bloomberg was wheeling and dealing with Albany up until last June’s stadium deadline, truly believing his good faith efforts to make the stadium happen actually had a chance. They didn’t. The stadium had been doomed for months because the powers-in-charge, two leaders of the state legislature in Albany, were determined to block the project.

Mr. Silverstein now finds himself in a similar predicament. He genuinely seems to believe he deserves control of the World Trade Center Site under the terms of his lease with the Port Authority. But what he deserves is irrelevant to reality. Bear in mind that Mr. Bloomberg genuinely thought the stadium was crucial. That had no impact on the political calculus that made the stadium impossible.

Mr. Bloomberg lost nothing by fighting until the end because there was no room for compromise – either the stadium would get built or not. Mr. Silverstein, however, has lots of incentive to make a deal before the combined efforts of Mr. Bloomberg, Governor Pataki and the Port Authority make a deal for him.

On the surface, the latest squabble over the World Trade Center is about vision – Mr. Bloomberg wants to use a portion of the site for apartments and a hotel, while Mr. Silverstein wants only office space. But vision is secondary to money. Indeed, Mr. Silverstein would have his vision if only he could pay for it. But he needs help – in the form of tax-free Liberty Bonds controlled by Mr. Bloomberg and Mr. Pataki – and Mr. Bloomberg in particular wants a say over what happens to the money he controls.

The tension downtown is nothing new. I was the first to report a year ago that Governor Pataki had directed his legal staff to explore using eminent domain to condemn Mr. Silverstein’s World Trade Center lease. And both the governor and mayor have been privately complaining about Mr. Silverstein for years.

But they tolerated Mr. Silverstein in the period after the Sept. 11th attacks because they needed him. Now they need him to back off a bit. Follow the money and the reasons are easy to understand.

Mr. Silverstein signed a 99-year lease for the site just six weeks before the September 11th attacks, meaning the insurance proceeds following the attacks flowed through him. Government officials immediately rallied behind Mr. Silverstein’s claim that he deserved two insurance payouts because two planes were used in the attacks. One attack would mean $3.5 billion, enough for only a few of the site’s five office buildings. Two attacks would mean $7 billion, enough to rebuild most of the complex.

While the legal process isn’t yet complete, Mr. Silverstein has fundamentally lost in court. He’s likely to receive around $4.5 billion – more than just a single attack would pay out, but nowhere near what government officials were counting on when they were unequivocally supporting his role downtown.

Virtually all of Mr. Silverstein’s available cash is accounted for between three buildings – the Freedom Tower, Tower 2 and the nearly finished Tower 7. Mr. Silverstein deserves enormous credit for finishing the one building that didn’t involve the government even before the buildings that require government approval are even begun. It’s also worth noting, unfortunately, that Tower 7 has proven remarkably unpopular and is only 15% occupied.

That puts Mr. Silverstein in a tough spot. He can’t even rent the space he has, and he can’t afford to finish his obligation to build five new towers without $3 billon in tax-free Liberty Bonds. Mr. Silverstein had influence when he had all the money. Now that Mr. Bloomberg and Mr. Pataki control the money, they have the power.

The financial equation is only part of Mr. Silverstein’s problem. The political equation also doesn’t leave a whole lot of room for the developer.

Mr. Pataki wants to run for president. His leadership role during the September 11 attacks is an important part of his pitch, and the inept inaction downtown is a problem. Mr. Pataki has a lot to gain from blaming the lack of progress on Mr. Silverstein, even if Mr. Silverstein doesn’t actually deserve the blame.

Mr. Bloomberg also has little to lose by blaming Mr. Silverstein. In fact, Mr. Bloomberg has routinely ridiculed the developer for seeking public funding to pay for security, for charging too much rent at building 7 and for focusing on office space. Mr. Silverstein’s friendship with Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver is another liability, given that Mr. Silver blocked the West Side Stadium.

Governor Pataki has set next month as the deadline for making a deal regarding Mr. Silverstein’s role. Mr. Bloomberg has asked Mr. Silverstein to relinquish control of Towers 3 and 4 (along Church Street, across from the Century 21 department store). The only good news for Mr. Silverstein is that Mr. Pataki’s definition of a deadline historically leaves plenty of wiggle room.

Either way, though, time is running out. Since September 11, Mr. Pataki has been determined to prevent Democrats from controlling the rebuilding process. He created the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation when Mark Green looked likely to win the November 2001 mayoral election. The chance that Eliot Spitzer could win an election for governor later this year, is a reason for Mr. Pataki to shift control over downtown to a fellow Republican. This is also the obvious occasion for Mr. Bloomberg to embrace more control over Lower Manhattan now that the stadium idea is gone.

Mr. Silverstein is in this unenviable weak spot because he is dealing with political leaders who have immediate political needs. Mr. Pataki has national aspirations and Mr. Bloomberg has aspirations to a legacy. The man who happens to hold the World Trade Center lease doesn’t matter a whole lot to either of them.

Mr. Goldin’s political column appears weekly.