Cuomo "Shocked" To Find Out Shelly Silver Is Corrupt

Make sure you're not drinking anything while you read this:

Gov. Andrew Cuomo told reporters today that Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver’s arrest on corruption charges “totally shocked” him–and declined to affirm the mayor’s belief that Mr. Silver, set to resign his powerful post today, is a “man of integrity.”

“I mean, no one had any clue. I’ll tell you the truth, I was totally shocked on a number of levels. And so I was really, really shocked,” Mr. Cuomo said after giving a speech on ethics reform in Manhattan.

Mr. Cuomo called it an “old story,” referring to past indictments and arrests of elected officials in Albany. But he said the political system, rather than the individuals, is as much as fault for the misconduct.

“It’s not just the individual anymore, it’s the system,” he said. “You should have a system that does everything it can to be protect and deter–and our current system encourages.”

“Think about it: you have to disclose campaign contributions, but you don’t have to disclose who pays you privately which is actually more important,” he continued.

Cuomo's "shocked" to find out Shelly was corrupt?

Who's Cuomo kidding?

He knew everything the Moreland Commission was investigating because its executive director was feeding information from the commission's work back to Cuomo via his secretary, Larry Schwartz.

We know that Moreland was looking into Silver, so you can bet that Cuomo knew they were looking into him, and we know that at least part of the criminal complaint leveled at Silver came from Moreland.

Smacks of quid pro quo that Cuomo shut Moreland down so fast in return for a budget deal and a few mild ethics reforms and I wouldn't be surprised if the US Attorney's office doesn't see it the same way.

The only thing I'm "shocked" about here is that Cuomo can be so disingenuous with a straight face.

Although I guess I shouldn't be shocked about that - sociopaths are like that.