It was only last November that third-term New York Governor Andrew Cuomo was a hero, winning an Emmy for his daily television show, publishing a book about how he masterfully managed the pandemic. delightfully called “leadership lessons.” Andy could not be flying higher, and somewhere, Mario was smiling that his smarter son was doing well.
And here we are, mere months later, with his own team demanding his resignation.
“Governor Cuomo has lost the confidence of the people of New York,” said Mr. Nadler, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee and one of the highest-ranking members of Congress. “Governor Cuomo must resign.”
Weebles Nadler spoke for the House Dems. And New York’s senators hopped on the speeding train.
Also calling for Mr. Cuomo to step down on Friday were Representatives Jamaal Bowman, Yvette Clarke, Antonio Delgado, Adriano Espaillat, Brian Higgins, Mondaire Jones, Sean Patrick Maloney, Grace Meng, Joe Morelle, Paul Tonko, Ritchie Torres and Nydia M. Velázquez. Another House Democrat, Kathleen Rice of Long Island, had already asked Mr. Cuomo to resign.
Hours after Mr. Cuomo’s impromptu news conference on Friday, Mr. Schumer and Ms. Gillibrand issued their joint statement in a news release.
What gave rise to this resignation chorus?
10-15,000 people needlessly died because of Cuomo forcing them into nursing homes.
Pols: That's concerning. Someone should look into that.
6 women accuse Cuomo of sexual harassment.
Pols: WE DEMAND HE RESIGN NOW!!!
Priorities.
— Scott Greenfield (@ScottGreenfield) March 12, 2021
Not just accuse. These women have “credibly accused” Cuomo. And Andy, in reply, has refused to resign and stated that “I did not do what has been alleged, period.” This would be a good time to bring up the irony of Cuomo’s disingenuousness, as with Biden before him, but enough is enough. There are two questions here. First, there is the legal question of whether Cuomo did what he is accused of doing. To ascertain that would require a process, with Andy getting his due, and an impartial determination using some burden of proof. New York Attorney General Tish James is pursuing an investigation, but it’s hard to imagine it’s going to turn out well for Andy unless he’s got some dirt we don’t know about.
Others, including President Biden, have echoed the governor’s pleas to await the results of an independent investigation into the sexual harassment claims overseen by the state attorney general, Letitia James. That investigation, conducted by two outside lawyers deputized by Ms. James, began this week.
Yes, that would be the same President Biden who is desperately seeking to eliminate the minimal due process protections for male students set forth in the new Title IX regs and who survived an accusation by Tara Reade that would have ruined him had he been a male college student. But I digress.
Second, there is the political question of whether the odor emitting from the accusations is so unpleasant as to render him ineffective as either a governor or a party icon. That requires, well, nothing more than the passions of the crowd and the fortitude of the party faithful.
Mr. Nadler, noting that the accusations against Mr. Cuomo were serious and credible, said the governor deserved due process, but he said the matter at hand was “squarely a political judgment” at this point.
In a joint statement, Ms. Ocasio-Cortez and Mr. Bowman, both members of the party’s ascendant progressive wing, also cited the latest accusation leveled against the governor. “Governor Cuomo can no longer effectively lead in the face of so many challenges,” they said.
Did he do it? Six credible accusations, although of varying magnitude unless such things are irrelevant to you, seems like a huge mountain to scale. But that’s no longer the question for those demanding Andy’s resignation. They could have chosen to back Cuomo and make excuses, the coin of the realm in such matters that are readily accepted and believed when they confirm one’s priors, or tie Cuomo to the pyre and wield the torch. They chose to burn Cuomo politically whether it happened or not. The higher one flies, the faster one falls. At least Mario’s better looking son still has a gig at MSNBC CNN, so there’s hope for the family.
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H. L. Mencken.
“In the duel of sex woman fights from a dreadnought and man from an open raft.”
The one extant dreadnought is the Texas (but it’s New York-class).
To paraphrase someone,
15000 dead people are only a statistic, but several offended women are a tragedy.
Let’s see…stupid sexual advances and bad behavior with the result of getting thrown out of office, against the repercussions of being responsible for 10,000 unnecessary deaths.
Now there’s a tough choice of ‘which ship do I want to go down on?’.
When you’re training your fox hounds you’re supposed to drag the herring across the trail BEFORE you let the hounds loose, dumb asses.
His idiot brother is on CNN, although I’ll admit that the difference between CNN and MSNBC is the number of letters in the abbreviation.
The metaphysical question of the day: If he should go down for one reason but instead goes down for a lessor reason, is that ultimately justice or not?
As you can tell, my familiarity with cable news networks leaves much to be desires.
Hmmm, now how could Cuomo partisans exact revenge on the politicians jumping on the bandwagon to bring him down. Wonder if they’ll come up with any ideas.
A three-term governor makes a lot of enemies. And a lot of friends.
After the shame of being credibly accused by six women, there won’t be any Cuomo partisans left.
Cuomo booted for the nursing home sandal puts the Democratic governors of PA, NJ, MI, and CA at risk. Cuomo booted for sexual harassment does not.
Not yet, anyway.
Been trying for a long time to understand when and why the Elect burn their own. Northam didn’t burn, nor did his two idiot subalterns, maybe because the third in line for the throne was a Republican. But Franken, for example, ultimately did, and was succeeded by a Dem.
I really have no clue, but at a minimum, everyone here but Cuomo is being consistent. No due process for anyone, as long as the accusation’s “credible.” How reassuringly pre-Enlightenment.
Steve asked me to post this.
Cuomo’s seat will go to a Dem either way, and maybe not an old dynasty Dem like Andy but someone more like Nixon.
Cynthia Nixon.
This has the fingerprints of the Vice-Prosecutor all over it – gut a possible credible opponent for the Dem Presidential candidate in 2024. Hell, she couldn’t even place above third in her home state, she’ll need all the help she can get.
Than being said…only seven more credible women needed to tie Bill Haley!