Cuomo: Tick Tock

Andrew Cuomo got the "Rebecca Traiser treatment" as part of a continuing bit of dominoes that includes Schumer and Gillibrand (who you don't see together much) joining state and federal New York legislators saying it's time for him to go. The Traiser piece includes leading Cuomo opponent (and my senator) Alessandra Biaggi and Josef Velaquez, a leading reporter at The City, which covers New York. Impeachment proceedings (ONE governor was impeached in the state's history) have begun.

Cuomo's dark side has been cited for years now, Biaggi notably quite upset about a Democratic governor seeming to be fine with divided government (with "independents" led by the guy she beat as the swing group) since Cuomo could triage. And, do so in a bastard sort of way, not the more Martin Sheen type (from what I can tell; recall his POTUS had a dark side too) of his father. But, he seemed to get things done, and his first two primary opponents were Zephyr "can't win any political race, maybe I should stick to being an academic" Teachout and Cynthia "is this seriously my choice? I like Miranda, but ..." Nixon, and token Republican opponents. Then, he seemed the serious one vs. Trump during the whole Big V thing.

Things are a tad different now. The Democrats not only control the legislature, but in the last election gained some more wiggle room. Not only do we have Biden now and COVID seems to be on the way out, but Cuomo's handling of the whole thing has been shown to have problems. Cuomo would be up to re-election next year, which is just long enough to seem a bit too far away (maybe). Cuomo might want to eke it out, but over twenty months is a pretty long time, and even his long time enemy De Blasio doesn't have to suck up to him any since the mayor is term limited. On some basic level, it just might be the guy has been in power for too long (over ten years) and his act is starting to be real stale.

The nursing home controversy itself has many parts. First, there is the issue of him allegedly not reporting a full account of how many people was involved, including how many deaths there were. Second, there is the controversy over him protecting nursing homes from liability. And, finally, there is the overall idea that his policy itself was dubious, and led to unnecessary deaths. I was willing to give him some benefit of the doubt there early in the crisis, but after a while, with everything, this all comes off bad. And, it hangs over everything in a way that is much harder to handwave as some overall unpleasant but livable personality issue.

The bully stuff is more easy to spin as bad, but not something you resign over, but it does you know add to his problems, and takes away some friends. There is a famous saying that it is better to have people fear than love you, but there is a lesser known caveat: you should avoid people despising you. Cuomo's asshole routine violated that rule from The Prince.  It is a bit late, but he deserves some strong comeuppance for a government style that violates a basic rule of mine -- don't be a f-ing dick. 

And, being an autocratic bully often leads to one being a sexist one, and repeated allegations of wrongdoing is coming out there. That is a sort of thing that you can push to have a full investigation over, dropping "Al Franken" as if that covers everything (Cuomo is not Al Franken for a number of reasons, down to no creepy Republican running for office), especially with "Kirsten Gillibrand" to toss in too.

I have said that a full investigation very well is a good thing, akin to how settling out of court while sealing the judgment agreement is not truly in the interest of justice. You can abuse the term "due process," but there is a value there, not to have to rely on press reports and the like. An organized process there is good on principle and for the interests of justice as well. Just leaving things somewhat unsettled, with some thinking a person was wronged, is not quite an ideal way to address #MeToo wrongs. It isn't, as some cynically think, just a CYA method. It can actually be a forceful approach, though how to go about it can be rather complicated.

The statement by Rep. Nadler (shared by AOC) cites the difference between the due process required for criminal investigations and a political decision that someone has to go.  People toss around "due process" (Cuomo is a recent press conference tossed in the kitchen sink, including how he was elected by the people, not politicians -- yes, the governor's son is an outsider! -- and comments about cancel culture -- him sounding like a Republican isn't helpful) as a vague "fairness" guarantee.

There are differences here, even if fairness is a standard that applies across the board.  People like the radio host Stephanie Miller keep on bringing up Al Franken -- it's tiresome.  Note that there multiple senators thought it was time for him to go and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer eventually joined them.  And, it was a sensitive time with #MeToo particularly raw and Roy Moore out there, so being seen as not consistent with a nice guy liberal would get you in trouble. You can see the complications, even if you think on the merits that the evidence of wrongdoing was somewhat limited. 

There is much more evidence here and Cuomo has more power than a single senator.  There was some concern -- unwarranted -- that Franken's seat would be lost.  Here, we have a female Democratic lieutenant governor, who might be in some fashion more conservative than Cuomo (she represented a conservative area like Gillibrand), but you know, how was Cuomo really such a prize?  You have conspiracy theorists arguing this is all about getting Trump a pardon.  Seriously?  Lay out the steps there.  

And, Cuomo has multiple things OTHER than the sexual harassment stuff.  Getting him out before the 2022 governor race -- though things will have to change significantly for Democrats to have a true scare there -- could be politically helpful.  In general, Cuomo's time has passed.  The investigation should and can continue regarding the nursing home stuff and anything else.  But, as Nadler notes, overall, Cuomo has lost the faith of the public and political community to a significant degree. FRANKEN bugaboos won't change that.  

What will happen remains to be seen.