Cuomo Says You Can't Get More Left Than Him

I checked the calendar, but it's not April Fool's Day.

Still, have to assume this is some kind of joke:

Gov. Andrew Cuomo gave a defense of his progressive credentials on Wednesday after he was asked about a potential challenge from a liberal gubernatorial candidate this fall.

“I don’t know if there’s a lot of space to my left,” Cuomo said.

He cited the legalization of same-sex marriage, along with the 2013 gun control law known as the SAFE Act as examples of Democratic base-friendly measures he has successfully pushed through the Legislature which both times was partly controlled by Republicans.

“I think we’ve accomplished more progressive measures than this state has accomplished in decades and decades and decades,” he said while adding, “We have a phenomenal record of accomplishment.”

Okay, first I don't think you can be considered "progressive" while using the "Royal 'We'" - just saying.

Also, Cuomo conveniently avoids the fiscal side of things, where he shoved concession-laden contracts down the throats of the state unions, is starving school districts via a tax cap even as he puts more and more mandates on them, undercuts traditional public schools for privatized charter schools, pushes tax cuts for the wealthy and tuition hikes for working and middle class students at SUNY colleges. 

You can't get much further to the right than Andrew Cuomo on any of these issues without being, say, a Republican.

And quite frankly, a lot of us out there on the left think he is a Republican, in Dem clothes, and while Cuomo thinks he's getting the best of both worlds by eating up all the yummy yummy Wall Street and hedge fundie money from his corporate base even as he pushes a lefty agenda on social issues and calls himself a "progressive", he's fooling nobody - not liberal activists, not the base of the Democratic Party, not the "net roots" at the Daily Kos and elsewhere on the Internets.

Call yourself a "progressive" all you want Sheriff Andy - it's a laughable statement on its face and no one takes you seriously when you make it.

You've got problems on the left and whether you buy off some of the unions and scare some of the activists with threats of retaliation post re-election, everybody's got your number on politics - a corporate whore through and through out to do the business of the 1%.

As Markos said a while back at Daily Kos, run for president all you want because you deserve the humiliation.

You have as much chance of winning the White House as Lieberman in 2004.

Which is to say, none.

Run, Andy, run!

You got the Joementum!