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Status Cuomo update: New York’s disgrace

First, the Moreland Act Commission, convened to Investigate state government corruption. Governor Cuomo cheered it on while it probed others. When it started poking into his own office, he abruptly shut it down, saying “it’s my commission.”

Percoco

So nothing to see here, folks. Except Joe Percoco, Cuomo’s “other brother” and enforcer who, with Todd Howe, another Cuomo henchman, went to jail for bribery. We learned too that Percoco illegally used state facilities for political work. (I’m shocked, shocked.) Then JCOPE — New York’s Joke Commission on Public Ethics — established under Cuomo and stuffed with his sycophants — refused to investigate Percoco.

Then some JCOPE commissioner votes were illegally leaked to Cuomo, and he vented his displeasure about them to State Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie. The State Inspector General’s office was asked to investigate the leak but found no evidence. Didn’t look terribly hard — didn’t even interview Heastie or Cuomo.

At the pandemic’s start, Cuomo ordered nursing homes to accept Covid patients from hospitals. In hindsight, a mistake. But ever since, he’s tried to cover it up with lies, blatantly manipulating Covid death statistics.

Then he wrote a book about his glorious pandemic leadership. Actually no — seems most of the work was done by his staffers. As volunteers, he claims. Yeah, sure. Using government resources in Cuomo’s side hustle as an author was a really big no-no. Demands for JCOPE to investigate this fell on deaf ears.

Meantime Cuomo was paid $5.1 million by Crown Publishing. Must have expected a blockbuster bestseller. Even though his previous book (also with a hefty advance) sold embarrassingly few copies. Now Crown, after the nursing home fiasco, has basically deep-sixed the new book. So why on Earth did they pay him $5.1 million up front? Seems awfully fishy. Maybe JCOPE should investigate.

And then there are the numerous women accusing Cuomo of sexual harassment. After several Cuomo attempts to get this handled under friendlier auspices, it wound up with State Attorney-General Letitia James running an inquiry. Previously she’d issued a devastating report on Cuomo’s nursing home scandal. Now, in February, fending off resignation demands, Cuomo said, “Let’s get the facts . . . that’s what the Attorney-General is doing. And that’s what we should all respect.”

That respect, by him, lasted for about a nanosecond. Ever since, Cuomo, through his bulldog mouthpiece Rich Azzopardi, has been badmouthing James and her investigation as a political hit job. Saying she’s just aiming to run for governor. The response was the same when the highly respected State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli called for investigating whether Cuomo criminally used state employees for his $5.1 million book. But, says team Cuomo, it’s DiNapoli who’s unethical. How so? Because he too is running for governor. “Albany politics at its worst,” tweeted Azzopardi.

They even impugn James’s investigation because one of its lawyers once worked for federal prosecutor Preet Bharara — who, guess what, supposedly wants to be governor.

Their response to this blog post will probably be that I’m running for governor.

For the record, I’m not. Nor are James, DiNapoli, or Bharara, either. Alas, there’s actually no credible candidate on the horizon who could threaten Cuomo in the primary. While Republicans, deep in their alternate reality, are set to nominate Congressman Lee Zeldin, a thoroughgoing Trumpsucker. Good luck with that.

Meantime, back when all the stuff started hitting the fan, and calls for Cuomo’s resignation peaked, the Democrat-controlled State Assembly started an impeachment. It never seemed in earnest, and now it’s clear they’re slow-walking it to death. Recently Speaker Heastie let slip a remark indicating that nothing the Attorney-General reports can result in impeachment.

So will Cuomo be re-elected next year? Of course! This is New York!

Excelsior!



This post first appeared on The Rational Optimist | Frank S. Robinson's Blog On Life, Society, Politics, And Philosophy, please read the originial post: here

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Status Cuomo update: New York’s disgrace

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