Interesting resignation on the part of New York Governor Andrew Cuomo. Rather than doing a mea culpa, he makes it sound like it was all a misunderstanding. Maybe that’s how he has to frame recent events in order to live with them. In any case, he’s gone in two weeks and Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul becomes the first female governor of New York. Daily Beast:
In defending himself on Tuesday, Cuomo insisted he never thought he’d “crossed the line with anyone”—and didn’t “realize the extent to which the line has been redrawn,” despite most of the allegations taking place in the wake of the #MeToo movement. The governor also blamed his woes on Twitter, lamenting that it’s “become the public square for policy debate.”
The AG report came months after an initial cascade of allegations and images from women about the powerful three-term Democrat’s abusive, demeaning, and sexist behavior, including—most seriously—a then-anonymous accusation that he groped an executive assistant in the governor’s mansion in Albany. Many of the state’s most powerful elected officials urged him to resign, including Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand. […]
But the governor’s defenses showed plain signs of collapsing. President Joe Biden and House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi called on him to resign, while his attorneys offered flailing claims his due-process rights were being violated. Multiple district attorneys, along with the Albany sheriff’s office, began prying into the attorney general’s report for evidence of criminal activity by the state’s highest executive. His top aide and confidante Melissa DeRosa resigned. And Brittany Commisso, the assistant who had asserted the governor molested her in his mansion, dropped her anonymity and came forward with further allegations and a demand Cuomo be held accountable. […]
The unceremonious exit marked an incredible reversal of reputation and fortune for the governor, once viewed as a potential presidential contender and candidate for the Biden Cabinet.
During the worst of the global health crisis, Cuomo took his longtime posture as a tough, take-charge leader to a national audience with daily presentations on the novel coronavirus’ progress in the worst-hit state in the worst-hit nation. Thousands of frightened Americans from far-flung states tuned in to the broadcasts, and viewers and pundits alike declared themselves “Cuomosexuals.”
But the fawning affection the third-term Democrat received glossed over his earlier downplaying of the pandemic’s severity, his intervention to prevent an early lockdown in disease-wracked New York City, and his March 2020 order that nursing homes accept COVID-19 patients from hospitals. Experts agree these actions probably cost lives.
It also overlooked how Cuomo had spent years building his reputation and power by terrorizing staff, reporters, and other politicians. Cuomo’s behavior haunted him when reports surfaced that his administration had undercounted COVID-19 deaths in senior residences after issuing his order last year. In the face of federal probes and continuing leaks about his team’s efforts to conceal the extent of devastation in nursing homes, a state lawmaker claimed the governor had called and threatened to “destroy” him.
The claim by Queens Democrat Ron Kim uncorked a torrent of negative national publicity for the governor, as report after report surfaced about his bullying habits and toxic work culture.
But arguably what felled the powerful governor was a series of sexual harassment allegations from former female aides. On Feb. 24, Lindsey Boylan, who had referred more vaguely to impropriety from Cuomo in the past, asserted that the governor had made numerous inappropriate comments to and about her and had kissed her on the lips while she served as an assistant on economic development matters.
The good news here is that there was accountability. Cuomo handled this situation the best way he could and while his resignation may leave something to be desired in the moral accountability column at least he is now gone and a precedent has been set. And maybe he’s telling the truth. Maybe he really is so dense as to not know where the lines of decent behavior and abuse of power are drawn. If so, that’s very sad indeed for a man to reach his sixties and not know something that basic.
Victor Hugo once made the observation, “Nothing succeeds like an idea whose time has come.” #MeToo is that idea.
Well, when #MeToo starts succeeding in taking down GOP critters (who, like Trump and Kavanaugh and Gaetz, *somehow* manage to weather the criticism and even turn it into a “badge of honor” when the “libs” can’t get them), I’ll offer some cheers. It does seem interesting that, in the #MeToo era, the only politicians who get taken down are Democrats.
And you can damn well be sure that the NY GOP (and its usual Conservative Party allies) will be using Cuomo as a cudgel against ALL Democratic candidates–even the female candidates. For some reason, the sins of Democrats manage to stay in the spotlight for years while GOP sins seem to vanish almost overnight. (Where’s that “liberal media” when you really need them to make Democrats’ “sins” vanish but keep the GOP sins in the spotlight forever?)
Flipside: we Dems also continue to demonstrate a “practice what you preach” stance that the GQP continues to fail at. #MeToo applying to the GQP will have to wait until after the upcoming Liz Cheney takeover. In the meantime, regularly cleaning our house will pay off.
Perfectly stated.
Cuomo wasn’t as smart as he believed.
This highlights the stark difference between Democrats and Republicans.
Cuomo makes inappropriate comments and has wandering hands, forced to resign.
Trump does far worse, with credible sexual assault accusations against him and remained president. as Maddow would say IOKIYAAR.
PJ, strongmen never ARE as smart as they believe they are! Case in point: Agent Orange (aka the Mango Messiah, Diaper Don, tRumpty Dumpty, etc.).
It was absolutely a misunderstanding.
Entitled males fail to understand that women are actual, human people.
There’s your isunderstanding.