The End of Andrew Cuomo
I hope Andrew Cuomo does not resign. I hope he fights it out, clinging to his job. I hope he faces his accusers, fights for an acquittal in the New York Assembly, and seeks somehow to redeem himself in the public eye.
Why?
Because only then will the true record of this abusive man become public. And only then will he be forced to reckon with what he has wrought. And only then will we the public be forced to come to grips with how powerful men intimidate people with less power.
Resigning the governorship is the easy way out. Cuomo should be forced to stew in the public glare of shame and reckoning. If he is forced to resign, the following will happen, a movie we have all seen before.
He will disappear from public view for a quiet trip abroad for reflection. He will live in a swanky NYC apartment or a mansion upstate. He will quietly take a job with a Wall Street investment bank where he will make millions. His work as a governor and the HUD secretary under Bill Clinton will enable him to set up meetings for his Wall Street clients and “earn’’ massive fees. Eventually he will try to creep back into the public eye, appearing on CNN as an “analyst.’’
After a year or so, all will be forgotten. The sexual harassment, the shaming, the bullying - all of it gross and disgusting. And most of it known by the press corps, the lobbyists, and the insiders in Albany and Washington. Everyone knew Cuomo’s act. The tough guy Italian who held grudges and destroyed the careers of anyone who crossed him. We reveled in his toughness and ignored the bad stuff.
He may not be Harvey Weinstein. Cuomo is more like Trump, a narcissist, who destroys people for sport.
While the enablers throughout the political system ignored his behavior, the Attorney General of New York - Letita James - did not. Her shocking report lays it all out. As the saying goes, she has the receipts. Read Here.
James provided required reading for any government official or executive as an example of how not to behave - anywhere.
To recap - Cuomo relentlessly harassed and intimidated women in his office and under his control - executive assistants, a state trooper, high-level employees. Worse, he and his enablers worked to smear the accusers, most notably the courageous Lindsey Boylan.
Boylan worked for Cuomo as a state economic development official and suffered repeated crude comments by the governor - an invite to play strip poker and multiple unwanted kisses.
When Boylan went public, Cuomo huddled with his staff to leak her personnel file to the media and even drafted an op-ed piece to make her look bad. The piece was never sent. Boylan can now face her kids with pride. Cuomo must face his daughters and mother in shame.
The enablers to all this included all kinds of Cuomo supporters, especially unions and liberal groups around the country. Melissa DeRosa, Cuomo’s chief of staff, was in on the cover-up. She should have known better. These insiders all knew about it and did nothing until brave women stood up for themselves and spoke to courageous journalists not in thrall to Cuomo.
The enablers are all named in this good NY Times piece.
How Cuomo and His Team Retaliated Against His Accusers
Of course, Cuomo has issued the usual defense. He didn’t mean it. He is sorry if they were offended. But in Cuomo’s case, he takes it one step further by using his Italian heritage as camouflage. He is a kisser like most Italians. He kisses everybody - men and women.
Don’t believe it and don’t let him get away with it.
As Vermont’s own Zephyr Teachout said many times when she ran against Cuomo for governor, this is about corruption and abuse of power. And the signs were there for all to see if we had just listened and watched.
So let’s not allow Cuomo to resign.
Better to force him into the sunlight. Impeachment proceedings, criminal charges, civil lawsuits, press conferences, speeches interrupted by protesters. Public shaming. That is what Cuomo deserves. Let’s not give in to our desire for the quick and temporary punishment of resignation. It is satisfying in the moment. But the long embarrassment is better because it forces the perpetrator to atone for his sins over many months. And it forces all of us to face ourselves and our disengagement from our civic duties, to demand better from political leaders.
There is also this. The voters elected Cuomo. They should have the right to un-elect him by voting for someone else. Cuomo was elected to be governor. He should be forced to do the job every day in the glare and shame of what he has done. He should be forced to testify before impeachment proceedings in the state capitol in front of the bright TV lights. He should be forced to recount what he did. Eventually, we will lose our taste and our interest for the spectacle. And when the TV cameras and reporters get bored, Cuomo will slink away, lonely and beaten - a just punishment for someone who no longer deserves the respect of the political system.
In the end, as always, it was about Cuomo and not about helping others or treating those around him with respect.
The shame is not just with Cuomo. It is also with a media/political system that knew about a lot of this and did nothing.
