Will Political Fortune Turn On Cuomo?

Michael Fiorillo on Sheriff Andy Cuomo's shutdown of Moreland and the subsequent furor that shutdown has caused, with US Attorney for the Southern District Preet Bharara picking up the Moreland investigations and refusing to rule out an investigation of Cuomo himself:

The abrupt shutdown of the Commission was surprising, immediately suggesting that it was not the the PR and negotiating weapon that our Reptilian Governor intended it to be.

It's hard to imagine that there aren't players in both parties who would like to see the man go down. In the past, he was always his own worst enemy, and he has been skilled/fortunate in controlling his political narrative in recent years.

That good political fortune is going to run its course, as it has for Christie, and maybe everyone will see what a nasty piece of work Cuomo is, and he too will have a swift fall.

It is said that Cuomo has no friends, only associates who go along with what he wants and enemies he turns into roadkill.

You can bet that lots of those who have ended up as roadkill on the other end of Sheriff Andy's motorcycle are going to look to stick him with a shiv.

The shivs are out for Christie, with a US attorney, a district attorney in New York and a legislative panel in New Jersey investigating him over a whole host of potential criminal or unethical activities.

All of these investigations stemmed from one "stupid move" by Christie's people, closing three access lanes to the George Washington Bridge in retaliation for something that pissed Christie off about Fort Lee (what that is has never been quite settled upon, though it's thought to be against the Fort Lee mayor for not endorsing Christie's re-election bid.)

Once the scrutiny started on Christie, it hasn't stopped - today the Newark Star-Ledger has yet another brewing Christie scandal over his sticking a bunch of Christie shills with conflicts of interest onto the state conflict of interest board/ethics agency.

Hard-bitten politicians like Christie and Cuomo can seem invulnerable for a long, long time, so long as the FEAR they engender keeps people in check.

But once that veneer of invulnerability is pierced and blood hits the water, the sharks circle.

They're encircling Christie right now, with all these criminal and ethics investigations being conducted on him and his administration.

The shutting down of Moreland and the furor it has caused, with US Attorney Preet Bhrarara wondering aloud in the media just what caused Cuomo to close the commission down so suddenly and just how far the Cuomo administration's interference into the commission's work went may turn out to be the first pricking of Cuomo's veneer of invulnerability.

If so and Cuomo's reputation bleeds a bit into the water, you can bet the sharks will circle him the way their circling Chris Christie right now.

We may yet see the turning of Sheriff Andy's political fortune.