Andrew Cuomo’s latest farewell should be his last – Latest News
It boggles the thoughts to think about that Andrew Cuomo managed to squeeze a second failed resurrection out of the embers of his first tried resurrection.
When Cuomo obtained smoked within the June major, it was broadly assumed that he would do the honorable factor — not commit seppuku, essentially, however at the least take a last bow and depart New York in peace.
After all, resigning the governorship in shame, claiming that his handsy habits was merely Italian in origin, having his Emmy Award taken away after which shedding his comeback bid must have been enough to dissuade even a huge egomaniac that, perhaps, the voters simply aren’t that into you.
Not if you’re Andrew Cuomo. Having been rejected within the mayoral major by Democrats in a metropolis that had been voting for Cuomos on the D line for nearly 50 years, he determined that working within the normal election as an outsider was his ticket to redemption.
Seemed perverse. But in a profession fueled principally by his household title, megalomania and a … healthy sense of personal future, it solely is smart that Cuomo — who was at all times vaguely vampiric — must be dragged wheedlingly and complainingly to the political boneyard.
It was solely a scant six months after being ignominiously chased from Albany in 2021 that Andrew Cuomo started clawing himself out of his swiftly dug grave. He blitzed the state with a television advert explaining that he was — shock! — a sufferer.
“Political attacks won. And New Yorkers lost a proven leader,” his weird spot mourned.
It’s believable that Cuomo was pushed out of the governor’s mansion in a form of palace coup; he actually had no lack of enemies. But if you’re a profession politician you may’t coherently dismiss your opponents’ assaults as “just politics” with out explaining who, how and why.
Follow the latest on the Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani:
In truth, there have been loads of causes to not like Andrew Cuomo. His governorship was a decade-long train in preening self-importance, dangerous insurance policies and cynical maneuvering that left few people joyful.
Ever taken a journey via western New York state — at one time one of the richest areas within the nation — and puzzled why so many homes seem like one thing out of the Dust Bowl?
For the sake of comparability, cross the state line into Pennsylvania and notice the variations. South of the road, new automobiles and vehicles, affluent communities; north of the road, hardship and fear.
What’s the distinction? Fracking, which Andrew Cuomo banned statewide in 2014 beneath strain from environmental advocates and donors — few of whom, if any, lived in Broome, Chautauqua or Cattaraugus counties or attended many Southern Tier deaths-of-despair funerals.
New York counties bordering Pennsylvania have triple the poverty price as their neighbors to the south.
Cuomo’s “Buffalo Billion” program to show western New York into a Rust Belt model of Silicon Valley-cum-Hollywood (bear in mind the “Central New York Film Hub”?) should have been known as the Buffalo Boondoggle.
Two of Cuomo’s most trusted advisers, Joe Percoco and Alain Kalayeros, had been convicted of bribery and fraud in reference to the Big B.B. True, their convictions had been overturned, but it surely was by no means in dispute that they took the money.
Andrew Cuomo signed into law some of the worst criminal-justice laws in New York historical past.
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Bail reform noticed to it that even violent criminals would be back on the road within hours after arrest. Discovery reform put absurd calls for on native prosecutors, forcing them to drop important circumstances as a result of tight workplace assets.
“Raise the Age” laws saved 16- and 17-year olds out of felony courtroom. This has led to a spate of hard-core teenage gangbangers getting shunted into household courtroom, the place they face gentle self-discipline and sealed information.
Cuomo’s sudden decriminalization of marijuana as a matter of “social justice” turned the state into a Wild West of drug gross sales and use. And he eradicated psychiatric beds simply when marijuana-associated critical mental sickness spiked.
I depart you with a last imaginative and prescient of Andrew Cuomo’s fatuous management. In 2017, he opened the new Mario Cuomo Bridge by vaingloriously crossing it in FDR’s 1932 Packard Phaeton, which he dragged out of a museum show and overhauled to make street-legal.
’Nuff mentioned.
Let’s simply be trustworthy. Zohran Mamdani is certainly going to be a horrible mayor. He has no expertise managing something more difficult than a ping-pong recreation.
He cozies up to the worst people in America. And he’s set on vitiating New York of its vigor and collapsing its prosperity and security.
Would Andrew Cuomo have been any higher? Probably. He has deep data of how town and state truly work, he has managed big budgets and wouldn’t enter municipal workplace with an aggressive foreign-policy agenda.
But the voters have spoken, and they’ll get what they requested for. As will the remainder of us.
As for Andy, let him take pleasure in his well-deserved, and delayed, retirement from electoral politics.
Seth Barron’s subsequent ebook, “Weaponized,” will be out this winter. He is a member of The Post Editorial Board. @sethbarronnyc
