A rogue's gallery of shameless ex-pols: Andrew Cuomo, Eliot Spitzer and Anthony Weiner.
Matthew McDermott,/SplashNews.comAnd/ SplashNews.com/Getty Photos
“I dreamed I noticed the Guv final evening,” to paraphrase an iconic labor-organizing anthem. “He was alive as you and me.
“Says I, ‘However Guv, you’re some months useless.’
“ ‘I by no means died’ says he,
“ ‘I by no means died’ says he.”
And in his personal thoughts, Andrew Cuomo by no means will.
For right here he comes once more, to a living-room flat-screen close to you, and as overbearing as ever.
In an advert kicking off a depressingly predictable comeback effort, the previous governor infers this query: Is there life for a perv politician in New York following a spectacular tumble from the heights?
Cuomo just isn't the primary to ask it. Take serial Web skeeve, ex-con and registered intercourse offender Anthony Weiner.
Chased from Congress for wagging his, um, appendage in cyber-public, he then ran for New York Metropolis mayor — and he might need made it had he not been caught indulging his ardour as soon as extra.
And now Weiner’s received a brand new radio gig, alongside gadfly Curtis Sliwa — and right here’s sincerely hoping he by no means makes it to tv.
Then there’s Eliot Spitzer, the previous governor who bailed after discovering that interstate transport of girls for business functions is towards the legislation. Then, hoping New Yorkers liked him anyway, he ran for metropolis comptroller — studying most emphatically that they didn't.
Even former Lawyer Common Eric Schneiderman — whose fast fists with girlfriends pressured his resignation in 2018 — appears to be courting a revival. He claims he’s been on a voyage of self-discovery, no matter that may imply. Oh, and he’s co-founded a feminist guide membership, a certain signal of renewed ambitions.
And now there may be irrepressible Andrew, who’s been plotting a comeback for the reason that day he resigned — therefore the brand new advert.
Cuomo’s declare boils all the way down to this: He wasn’t convicted, which suggests he was exonerated, and so as a substitute of accepting the phrase of 11 accusers and Lawyer Common Letitia James, it's best to imagine the previous governor’s mendacity lips.
Or, as he instructed Bloomberg Information in the course of the run-up to the advert: “I by no means resigned as a result of I mentioned I did one thing incorrect. I mentioned, I’m resigning as a result of I don’t wish to be a distraction.”
Proper. Eleven ladies relating underneath oath their numerous experiences with a handsy, ego-driven, getting old politician with amore on his thoughts is a distraction? You would possibly name it that.
Otherwise you would possibly name it ego. Or vanity. Or entitlement. However what you have got is the ineffable, butter-wouldn’t-melt-in-his-mouth Cuomo-ness of the guy.
There’s extra.
A typical thread runs by these appalling tales. With out exception, they reveal belligerent, self-indulgent bullies with no private boundaries and even much less respect for the establishments they’d sworn to guard.
Why they thought, or suppose, they need to have a second probability is for the shrinks to ponder, however the truth that they even ask betrays a bewildering — if not disqualifying — contempt for the voters.
Nonetheless, as soon as fooled, twice shy holds for voters, too. Weiner and Spitzer fell quick and a Schneiderman return appears unlikely, so what’s to make of Cuomo? What’s his rationale for revival?
The intercourse harassment is dangerous sufficient. However what of these 1000's of nursing-home COVID fatalities — adopted by clumsy coverups, innumerable lies and nasty media pushback? What in regards to the gorgeous moral violations he and his vengeful wrecking-ball of a brother Chris visited on CNN, maybe bringing the faltering community to its knees?
At what level does sufficient turn out to be sufficient? When does the cumulative weight of ruthless ambition and cynical manipulation of excessive workplace turn out to be an excessive amount of?
Onerous to say, however wherever that line is, Cuomo the Youthful crossed it a very long time in the past.
New York has lots on its plate proper now. Its COVID restoration is sporadic at greatest; it's wracked by crime whereas its criminal-justice system is commanded by hard-left ideologues. Its governance is within the palms of a rookie mayor in New York Metropolis and an untested unintended governor in Albany.
So the very last thing the Empire State wants proper now could be a distraction on the order of what the previous governor appears to be plotting.
Not that what’s greatest for others has ever really involved Andrew Cuomo, however proper now he can greatest serve New York by going away.
bob@bobmcmanus.nyc
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