Meanwhile, Back in Albany (v44): Cuomo's Goodbye

Today my Sonofa Gov, Andrew Cuomo, leaves office. He'll be replaced by Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul, the first woman to ever hold New York's highest office. 

Cuomo spoke today, via a videotaped message. You can watch and read his parting thoughts on the state's website. Some highlights are below.

Hello. As you probably know I'm stepping aside as your governor. I wanted to share some thoughts with you that I've been thinking about over the past few days. 

What's been on his mind over the past few days? It hasn't really been introspection, at least not as far as his admitted behavior is concerned.

I now understand that I acted in a way that made people feel uncomfortable. It was unintentional and I truly and deeply apologize for it. I feel awful about it and, frankly, I am embarrassed. And that's not easy to say.

In fact, it was impossible to say, today. Instead, we got this.

There will be another time to talk about the truth and ethics of the recent situation involving me, but let me say now that, when government politicizes allegations and the headlines condemn without facts, you undermine the justice system - and that doesn't serve women and it doesn't serve men or society.

Of course, everyone has a right to come forward and we applaud their bravery and courage in doing so, but allegations must still be scrutinized and verified whether made by a woman or a man. That is our basic justice system.

See, it wasn't about his behavior, it was about politics, and people who want what he has, or so he thinks. 

I understand that there are moments of intense political pressure and media frenzy that cause a rush to judgment. But that is not right. It's not fair or sustainable. Facts still matter.

A fire cracker can start a stampede but at one point everyone looks around and says, why are we running? The truth is ultimately always revealed. 

The Attorney General's report was designed to be a political firecracker on an explosive topic. And it worked. There was a political and media stampede. But the truth will out in time - of that I am confident. 

To his credit, he understood that trying to stay in office and fight, which is and always has been his first reaction to any criticism or accusation, no matter how big or small. 

Now there are moments in life that test our character, that ask us, are we the person we believe we are? Or are we the person we try to be at our best? You know me. I am a fighter and my instinct is to fight this because it is unfair and unjust in my mind. But you also know that I love New York and I serve you. That is the oath that I took, and in this moment I believe the right thing is that my service come first. 

After telling us what must be done to ensure the Empire State's future (police reform, and giving us back our SALT tax deduction, for example), he spoke of "what made New York State the Empire State in the first place."

New York's historic success was not a process of evolution. It didn't just happen. We weren't born this way. We were born of vision and daring and competence. We built the canals, the roads, the bridges, and education system and the economy that made us the greatest state in the nation.

Our future is ahead of us, though. 

But today is a different day. We have reason to believe in New York's future based on what we have accomplished together. We've shown potential. We've shown that the New York spirit that reached for the skies, that refused to accept defeat, that challenged possibility, that said no to the status quo, that took on the bureaucracy that still exists. And we must demand that government continue to perform and achieve and accomplish. 

Cuomo spoke about lessons he's learned during his time in office, "and the one that gives me the most hope is my belief in the essential intelligence and goodness of the people of this state." 

I said, when I started, I work for the people. I work for you. And to me, that is everything. My faith has been in the people, not the politicians and not even the political system. I know too well the flaws of the political system. I believed and still believe that New Yorkers informed with the facts when they believe the facts, when they believe they're told the truth, they will do the right thing. Even when it's hard. 

It's not easy, but it's possible. And I know it's true because you proved it. You are the u in unity and New York chooses unity over division every time. I believe that for New York, the best is yet to be, because I believe you will make it so.

In sum, we didn't get everything done that we wanted to, or even everything we should have done. And we didn't always get it quite right. But I want you to know from the bottom of my heart, that every day I worked my hardest. I gave it my all and I tried my best to deliver for you. And that is the God's honest truth.

And then he thanked us, "for the honor of serving as governor of New York," for making NY "the progressive Capitol of the nation," and then he mentioned his dad.

Thank you for vindicating E.B. White's words, often quoted by my father, God, rest his soul. When he said, "New York is to the nation what the white church spire is to the village, the visible symbol of aspiration and faith, the white plume saying the way is up." 

Thank you for the honor of serving you and never forget, always stay New York tough, smart, united, disciplined and loving. It's the essence of what makes New Yorkers so special. God bless you.

And at 11:59PM, it will be over. 

Meanwhile Back in Albany (v13)

Nathaniel Brooks/NY Times photo

It's everywhere, the insidious scourge of sexual harassment.

Hollywood. The media. The House and Senate. State governments. Doctors' offices and hospitals. Schools. Athletic institutions, including the Olympics. The music industry. The boardroom. Restaurant kitchens.

It's everywhere - including, allegedly, in the administration of NY Governor Andrew Cuomo.

In a lawsuit filed in federal court in New York City, Lisa Marie Cater alleges that William (call me Sam) Hoyt, who worked as head of the Empire State Development Corporation, repeatedly made unwanted advances, and further that the harassment was reported to and ignored by Cuomo's office, which is why Cuomo is a named defendant in the suit. The governor's office  denies ignoring the complaints.

Meanwhile, back in Albany, the governor had the opportunity to respond to a question from Karen Dewitt, a reporter for New York Public Radio, on this issue, and it's safe to say that it didn't go well for the Sonofa Gov.

Dewitt noted the Hoyt allegations and asked Cuomo what he could do differently, and here's how he responded.

You have it going on in journalism. What are you going to do differently?

OK - sure, that's true, but this is a reporter talking to a governor who is a defendant in a sexual harassment case involving an appointee of the governor. There was some exchange after that comment, including a different reporter pointing out that the question was about state government. That didn't sit well.

No, it's about you and journalism (pointing his finger at the other reporter). And it's about you and journalism (turning to Dewitt and pointing again). And it's about state government. And it's about carpentry and it's about training forces... (Note: that last one may not be accurate, it was hard to understand what he said.)

Again, Dewitt asked if there was something that Cuomo could do differently. Apparently, his only option on that was to lecture Dewitt, using his best professorial intonation, especially at the end of this exchange.

We will have policies in state government, obviously, that affect state government, but I think you miss the point. When you "it's state government" you do a disservice to women, with all due respect, even though you're a woman.

Um... what the hell is that?

Asking the gov about what his administration will do about sexual harassment is doing a disservice to women, "with all due respect?" I don't know about you, but most of the time when someone drops those four words, 'all due respect' is the furthest thing from the speaker's mind.

It's about as condescending a thing he could have said, other than maybe pointing out that the reporter was a woman. Oh wait -- he did that too.

He went on with the lecture, with a heavy emphasis added on journalists and the journalism profession.

It's not government. It's society. It was Harvey Weinstein in the arts industry. It's comedians. It's politicians. It's chefs, right? It's systemic. It's societal. It's not one person in one area. It's not just Charlie Rose, right? It's not just Matt Lauer. It's not just journalists. It's societal.

Finally, slowing down the pace of his answer to something slower than a school closing chyron, he finished his lecture.

Understand. The. Breadth. Of. The. Problem.

Which, frankly, is exactly what Dewitt and the other reporters were hoping Cuomo would do, specifically as it relates to him, not as it relates to anyone else. To her credit, Dewitt tried one last time to get him to name one thing he'd do to make things different in his administration. In a classic deflection, he changed the subject.

No! It's called the State of the State. Come and cover it... 

I swear, you could almost hear his feet stamping.

Boy, I miss his father.

Wondering, on Wednesday (v17)

Here we are, just a few days into the new year, and instead of being filled with hope and anticipation, we're sharing grief and anger and agony with our friends in France,we've got a new Congress in Washington, and we said goodbye to an icon here in New York.  It's been a busy few days.

Paris was devastated by an attack on their boldly satirical magazine, 'Charlie Hebdo'. The magazine, which gained notoriety for publishing cartoons of the prophet Mohammed was fire-bombed in an earlier incident, and today a dozen people were killed in the horrific attack; meanwhile we are still a bit indignant about the brazen technical assault last month on Sony Pictures for their somewhat ill-advised comedy about killing North Korea's Kim Jung Un.

In that attack on free speech,  Sony lost emails, data, credibility and money by not having the opportunity for a big Christmas-day premiere of The Interview. In Paris, they lost lives for publishing cartoons.  I'm left wondering, this Wednesday,  if we'll ever really understand that kind of extremism, and more importantly whether we'll ever collectively have a way to manage it and the people who bring it upon us.

The 114th Congress took over this week, with an extreme kiss from Crying John Boehner to the head of Nancy Pelosi; a more awkward kiss has not been seen in DC in who knows how long. Boehner managed to get re-elected as House Speaker, although it wasn't easy. It wasn't easy for a few of the folks were were not firmly in his corner, either - those folks lost their committee posts in a swift reaction by Boehner. He's going to have a long battle these next two years, but starting out by smacking down the opposition has to feel good, don't you think?

Meanwhile, over in the Senate, Mitch McConnell actually talked about finding agreement with his Democratic counterparts:

I always like to remind people that divided government is not unusual in this country. When the American people choose divided government I don't think it means they don't want us to do anything, I think it means they want us to look for areas of agreement. 

And then, reminded us that this first order of business is to pass the Keystone XL Pipeline bill, which according to McConnell is a key component of the 'energy revolution' in this country.  That would be the same energy revolution that has gas prices tumbling, which would be good, except that OPEC countries are not propping up their own oil, and so the price is in free fall, which is messing up the stock market and the world economy, which is scaring the bluecheeses out of us.  I'm wondering if Mitch wants to reconsider his first big vote?

And finally, we said goodbye to Mario Cuomo this week; I wonder who will be the real voice of progressive reasonableness, or reasonable progressitivity, going forward? That person, whoever he or she is, will have a huge opportunity in 2016, one that shouldn't be wasted.

Mario Cuomo's Words Still Ring True

Tomorrow, former NY Governor Mario Cuomo will be laid to rest.

His classic 1984 Democratic Convention address will live on, stored as it is among the Top 100 speeches at American Rhetoric. There will always be people who will talk about the tale of two cities vs the shining city on the hill, the comparison between the middle class reality as Cuomo saw it, and what Ronald Reagan saw when he looked out the window at his world.

One of those people talking about Cuomo mentioned that there wasn't a lot of detail in the speech, that it would have been better if he had included more 'meat' beyond the quotable parts with which we're all so familiar.  I disagree with that assessment; there was a lot in the speech that doesn't make the highlight reel, and that still rings true today.   Here are a few examples:

On how to win an election:

We must get the American public to look past the glitter, beyond the showmanship to the reality, the hard substance of things. And we'll do it not so much with speeches that sound good as with speeches that are good and sound; not so much with speeches that will bring people to their feet, but with speeches that will bring people to their senses. 

On creating a party platform:

To succeed we will have to surrender some small parts of our individual interests, to build a platform that we can all stand on, at once, and comfortably...

On the middle class::

And in between (the rich and the poor) is the heart of our constituency - the middle class, the people not rich enough to be worry-free but not poor enough to be on welfare; the middle class, those people who work for a living because they have to...White collar and blue collar. Young professionals. Men and women in small business desperate for the capital and contracts that they need to prove their worth.

On key themes:

We speak for young people demanding an education and a future.  We speak for senior citizens, for senior citizens who are terrorized by the idea that their only security, their Social Security, is being threatened.  We speak for millions of reasoning people fighting to preserve our environment from greed and stupidity.

And on the credo of the Democrats:

• We believe in only the government we need, but we insist on all the government we need.
• We believe in a government that is characterized by fairness and reasonableness, a reasonableness that goes beyond labels, that doesn't distort or promise to do things that we know we can't do.
• We believe in a government strong enough to use works like 'love' and 'compassion' and smart enough to convert our noblest aspirations into practical realities.
• Our government should be able to rise to the level where it can fill the gaps that are left by chance or by a wisdom we don't fully understand. 
• We believe as Democrats that a society as blessed as ours the most affluent democracy in the world's history, one that can spend trillions on instruments of destruction, ought to be able to help the middle class in its struggle, ought to be able to find work for all who can do it, room at the table, shelter for the homeless, care for the elderly and infirm, and hope for the destitute.
• We believe in firm - firm but fair law and order.
• We believe proudly in the union movement.
• We believe - we believe in privacy for people, openness by government.
• We believe in civil rights, and we believe in human rights.

On the night before Mario Cuomo is laid to rest, and as the 114th Congress gets to work, it might do us all well to think about Cuomo's words from 30 years ago.  Because, with the exception of the part about the union movement, most of what he talks about are goals that just about all politicians profess to support, even if the path to getting there is very different as expressed by the Democrats and Republicans today.

The one piece that missing from today's picture, however, is the shared sacrifice part. If everyone "surrenders some small parts of (our) individual interests" everyone "gets to stand." Wouldn't it be nice if our new Congress in Washington was willing to give a little, on both sides, so that all Americans are able to stand? And if they all could drop the glitter and showmanship and focus on the realities, which is where real Americans live?

That would be an outstanding addition to the legacy of Mario Cuomo.

The Inspirational Mario Cuomo

1984 was the third presidential election I voted in.

I didn't have a lot of hope that Walter Mondale would win. He could not match Ronald Reagan's Hollywood appeal and charisma, his easy charm. Mondale also had made the decision to choose a woman, Geraldine Ferraro, as his running mate. I admit to being excited about the possibilities of that choice, but was not surprised with how it played out: the investigation into her finances, her husband's business, her brashness, the whole 'Italian thing' and the potential ties to organized crime, and so on.

The main reason I didn't have a lot of hope for Mondale, honestly, was that he wasn't Mario Cuomo.

Like many twenty-something Democrats (and many older ones as well), I was very moved by Cuomo's convention keynote address, and his vision of America. I loved his passion, and his energy, and his ability to grab and hold people's attention, as he did mine. Cuomo could have tackled Reagan, I thought back then -- I remember talking with my Dad about how we had picked the wrong guy.

I watched the highlight reel from that speech again yesterday, after hearing the news that Mario Cuomo had died on the very day that his son Andrew began his second term as New York's Governor.  The most famous parts, good libs can at least paraphrase without much prompting. Here's a look at some of them. Later, I'll look at some of the things that didn't make the video.

On Reagan's "this country is a shining city on a hill" analogy:

The hard truth is that not everyone is sharing in this city's splendor and glory. A shining city is perhaps all the President sees...But there's another city; there's another part to the shining, the city; the part where some people can't pay their mortgages, and most young people can't afford one; where students can't afford the education they need, and middle-class parents watch the dreams they hold for their children evaporate. 

 In this part of the city there are more poor than ever, more families in trouble, more and more people who need help but can't find it... There is despair, Mr. President, in the faces that you don't see, in the places that you don't visit in your shining city. In fact Mr President -- this is a nation -- Mr President you ought to know that this nation is more a "Tale of Two Cities" than it is just a "Shining City on a Hill."

On 'trickle down' economics:

President Reagan told us from the very beginning that he believed in a kind of social Darwinism. Survival of the fittest. "Government can't do everything," we were told, so it should settle for taking care of the strong and hope that economic ambition and charity will do the rest.  Make the rich richer, and what falls from the table will be enough for the middle class and those are trying desperately to work their way into the middle class.

You know, the Republicans' called it "trickle-down" when Hoover tried it. Now they call it "supply side."  But it's the same shining city for those relative few who are lucky enough to live in its good neighborhoods. But for the people who are excluded for the people who are locked out, all they can do is stare from a distance at that city's glimmering towers.

On the difference between Ds and Rs:

It's an old story. It's as old as our history. The difference between Democrats and Republicans has always been measured in courage and confidence. The Republicans -- the Republicans believe that the wagon train will not make it to the frontier unless some of the old, some of the young, some of the weak are left behind by the side of the trail.  "The strong" -- "the strong," they tell us, "will inherit the land."

We Democrats believe in something else. We Democrats believe that we can make it all the way with the whole family intact, and we have more than once.  Ever since Franklin Roosevelt lifted himself from his wheelchair to lift this nation from its knees -- wagon train after wagon train -- to new frontiers of education, housing, peace; the whole family aboard, constantly reaching out to extend and enlarge that family, lifting them up into the wagon on the way; blacks and Hispanics and people of every ethnic group, and native Americans -- all those struggling to build their families and claim some small share of America. And remember this, some of us in this room today are here only because this nation had that kind of confidence. And it would be wrong to forget that. 

On a 'proper government':

We believe in a single -- we believe in a single fundamental idea that describes better than most textbooks and any speech I could write what a proper government should be: the idea of family, mutuality, the sharing of benefits and burdens for the good of all, feeling one another's pain, sharing one another's blessings -- reasonably, honestly, fairly, without respect to race, or sex, or geography, or political affiliation.

We believe we must be the family of America, recognizing that at the heart of the matter we are bound to one another, that the problems of a retired schoolteacher in Duluth are our problems; that the future of the child - -that the future of the child in Buffalo is our future; that the struggle of a disabled man in Boston to survive and live decently is our future; that the hunger of a woman in Little Rock is our hunger; that the failure anywhere to provide what reasonably we might, to avoid pain, is our failure. 

Back in 1984, these words moved me.  They moved me again today.  Rest in peace, Mario.