De Blasio's Office Calls John Flanagan Out For His Bullshit

Man, I am so sick of state Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan already.

Politicians by nature are full of shit but Flanagan is fuller than most:

After Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan accused Mayor Bill de Blasio of not lobbying forcefully enough on extending mayoral control of city schools, de Blasio’s team says that wasn’t the case.

Instead, it was Flanagan who failed to return personal calls made by de Blasio on the issue.

“The mayor and his team conducted a great deal of outreach with Senator Flanagan, his team, and Senators in his conference, especially those from New York City, throughout the legislative process,” said spokeswoman Karen Hinton. “At a certain point Senator Flanagan simply stopped returning the mayor’s personal calls. The mayor also repeatedly offered to attend a hearing in Albany and testify on the merits of mayoral control. The mayor always welcomes the opportunity to remind individuals of the broad, bipartisan support mayoral control has historically enjoyed in New York City, as well as its proven track record of success.”

Good for de Blasio having Hinton call Flanagan out for this bullshit.

Flangan and Cuomo tag-teamed up on de Blasio, which is fine - that's how it goes in politics.

But Flanagan doesn't get to act all sanctimonious about the tag team match.

Clearly neither Flanagan nor Cuomo wanted de Blasio to get more than a year extension of mayoral control of schools in NYC - this despite pretty broad support from the business leaders who send an awful lot of money both Flanagan's and Cuomo's way.

Flanagan and Cuomo wanted to stick it to de Blasio, humiliate him with the one year extension, and force him to come hat in hand next year when the extension is up.

That's why Flanagan stopped returning de Blasio's calls.

That's cool - but it's also cool for de Blasio's office to call bullshit on Flanagan.

If This Is The Best Cuomo Can Do...

In the battle between Mayor Bill de Blasio and Governor Andrew Cuomo, I figured a few hacks would come out of the woodwork to back Cuomo.

David Paterson, Cuomo's handpicked head of the State Democratic Committee, seemed like a likely candidate.

Sure enough, we get this news on the NY Post gossip page today:

David Paterson, the former governor and current head of the New York State Democratic Committee, is being urged to run for mayor.

“He hasn’t said ‘no’ to anyone,” a friend of his told me. “He would beat the pants off [Bill] de Blasio.”

Paterson confirmed “a number of people have mentioned it to me out of nowhere,” but he told me he isn’t interested.

Oh, please run David, please!

I'm dying to see you get some more scrutiny for the witness tampering incident, where you talked the woman your aide beat out of showing up in court against him:

Last fall, a woman went to court in the Bronx to testify that she had been violently assaulted by a top aide to Gov. David A. Paterson, and to seek a protective order against the man.

In the ensuing months, she returned to court twice to press her case, complaining that the State Police had been harassing her to drop it. The State Police, which had no jurisdiction in the matter, confirmed that the woman was visited by a member of the governor’s personal security detail.

Then, just before she was due to return to court to seek a final protective order, the woman got a phone call from the governor, according to her lawyer. She failed to appear for her next hearing on Feb. 8, and as a result her case was dismissed.

Many details of the governor’s role in this episode are unclear, but the accounts presented in court and police records and interviews with the woman’s lawyer and others portray a brutal encounter, a frightened woman and an effort to make a potential political embarrassment go away.

If Paterson is the best Cuomo can do to take aim at de Blasio, Cuomo's in bad, bad shape...

Compromise, Cuomo-Style

Andrew Cuomo responds to Bill de Blasio's criticism that he's a transactional politician without  political core who governs by vendetta:

Cuomo, speaking with reporters on Wednesday night, sought to draw a distinction between his brand of governing — which has angered liberal advocates for what they say is working hand-in-glove with the GOP — versus embracing ideology.

“We had gridlock for many, many years, but under my administration it’s been different,” Cuomo said. “When there’s gridlock, it means nothing happens.”

For Cuomo, the choice is a binary one: He has to work with the Legislature he has, or nothing can be accomplished.

“We had a very productive session,” Cuomo said. “Did we get everything we want? No. We have in New York state a Democratic Assembly and a Republican Senate, so everything is a compromise. It’s a compromise or you go Washington style and you go gridlock.”

Cuomo sidestepped the broader criticisms the mayor leveled at him: Namely that in his aggressive pursuit to accomplish things in Albany, Cuomo has often run roughshod over his enemies and has a tendency to exact “revenge” on those who stand in his way.

“Everything is entitled to their own comments,” Cuomo said, before pivoting back to talk of “compromise” — a word he used multiple times in a brief gaggle with reporters.

Given the number of times he said the word "compromise" in his remarks, clearly Cuomo and his attack monkeys have decided to try and paint de Blasio as a crazy, bomb-throwing ideologue and Cuomo as a mature, rational adult who understands how to get along with others to get things done.

Such pushback is laughable on its face.

First, it ignores the de Blasio critique - echoed by other Dems on and off the record, not to mention teachers and state workers in PEF - that Cuomo governs by vendetta.

Second, it seeks to make Cuomo's brand of compromise like something people ought to want in Albany.

A commenter at State of Politics puts that into persepctive:

Compromise - the art of giving your REBNY overlords what they want, while stiffing the party you purportedly lead by watering down everything they want (minimum wage being the best example).

Indeed.

Compromise, Cuomo-style - cha-ching!!!!

NY Times Editorial Unloads On Cuomo

The NY Times backs up on de Blasio in the Cuomo/de Blasio feud, mocking Cuomo in the process:

The immediate analysis focused not on the truth of what the mayor said, but on whether he was a fool and a noob for saying it, or whining, or showing weakness at playing Albany chess against a grandmaster.

The important point is that everything he said is true. By any fair reading of the events of the last Albany session, the governor has acted disgracefully toward the 8.5 million people of the city Mr. de Blasio leads. Though Mr. Cuomo poses as liberal and reform-minded when it suits him, his indifference to the city’s needs, and his poorly disguised disdain for the mayor, are further discrediting an already disheartening second term.

Mr. Cuomo’s hand was acutely evident when crucial goals for Mr. de Blasio — like extending mayoral control of the New York City schools, repairing crumbling public housing, investing in mass transit — became needless struggles. An important deal that Mr. de Blasio struck with the real estate industry this spring, to reform a tax break for developers called 421-a, would have added many thousands of units of dearly needed affordable housing. In Albany it was nearly sabotaged. Efforts to extend and update rent-control laws governing more than one million city apartments were similarly undermined.

When the governor wasn’t playing Tommy Lee Jones in the upstate manhunt for two escaped killers, he was saying it was too late to fix 421-a, although it was not, or challenging the mayor over managing wage rates for construction workers or costly disability-pension giveaways to police officers and firefighters. Mr. de Blasio said the governor’s vindictiveness had even extended earlier in the year to surprise state inspections of city homeless shelters.

Mr. de Blasio’s many critics say he was foolish to go on the attack and are waiting for Mr. Cuomo to bury the hatchet, in Mr. de Blasio.

But really — what should he have done?

State law gives the Legislature and governor far too much control over New York City’s business, and whenever the mayor — any mayor — takes his petitions to Albany, he has to beg, wheedle, cajole and bargain.

For a year and a half, Mr. de Blasio — maybe naïvely, maybe cunningly, maybe because he had no other choice — played nice with Mr. Cuomo, stressing their decades-long acquaintance and going out of his way not to pick fights. Sometimes it worked, as when the mayor won funding for a huge expansion of prekindergarten. Sometimes it didn’t. He was never going to eliminate longstanding mayor-governor tensions. But he has seemed to be making an effort to get past the nonsense, with a steadfast focus on policy over personality and power plays.

Some are now wondering whether Mr. de Blasio’s stand-up-to-the-bully tack will backfire. If it does, it will make clearer than ever who the bully is.

Very strong support from the Times editorial page.

De Blasio told the truth.

Cuomo's a bully.

De Blasio/Cuomo Feud Day Three: Cuomo Loyalists Worried About Cuomo's "Democrat Problem"

Day Three of the de Blasio/Cuomo feud and while there are still few prominent Democratic politicians publicly siding with de Blasio (I count just state Senator Mark Panepinto and Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams for now), many are piling on Cuomo off the record or indirectly.

Here's Harry Siegel in the Daily News:

The phrase “nothing to lose” came up repeatedly as I asked de Blasio-aligned Democrats how, exactly, attacking Cuomo personally helps the city.

“It is cathartic, but I think it’s also politically smart,” said one City Hall veteran with extensive experience dealing with the governor. “What’s Cuomo going to do? Take the largest school system in America hostage? He’s already done that. Bill’s calculation was that he had nothing to lose.”

...

“This is not about the difference between a wide-eyed idealist and a clear-eyed pragmatist,” said the Democrat, in an assessment others sympathetic to de Blasio echoed. “This is the difference between someone who is not a psychopath and someone who is. Saying that clarifies the picture for voters — that the mayor is with the overwhelming majority of New Yorkers who think Albany is a bad place.”

Strong word, “psychopath,” but it speaks to how the name “Andrew Cuomo” has become a slur in progressive circles, both because of his politics and what they see as his conniving nature.

Stephanie Miner, mayor of Buffalo:

Syracuse Mayor Stephanie Miner knows firsthand what it’s like to feud with the powerful governor.

Miner was Cuomo’s hand-picked co-chairwoman of the state Democratic party until she fell out of favor after publicly criticizing a pension plan by the governor.

For a while, Cuomo stopped talking to her and often did events just outside her city to which she was not invited.

“The blowback was a lot of anonymous ad hominem attacks and lots of threats,” she said. “I just said I wasn’t going to be bullied or intimidated.”

When Miner earlier this year called on the state to use a multi-billion-dollar surplus to help fund local infrastructure projects, Cuomo responded that Syracuse should pay for its own water projects by reviving the local economy.

“This governor in particular, when you have a disagreement with him on public policy, he views that as heresy,” Miner said.

Mark Panepinto again:

New to Albany, Sen. Marc C. Panepinto, D-Buffalo, said that there are many reasons for Cuomo’s problems with his own party. “He’s in the first six months of a second term. He picks unnecessary fights with key Democratic constituencies. His poll numbers are down, and his favoring of the moneyed interests of the state has made it easier for rank-and-file Democrats to stand against him,” the senator said.

Jumaane Williams:

Councilman Jumaane D. Williams, a Brooklyn Democrat, led a chant this week against Mr. Cuomo at a meeting of the Rent Guidelines Board, calling out: “Cuomo betrayed us. The R.G.B. can save us.” Mr. Williams, who declined to endorse Mr. Cuomo in the 2014 Democratic primary, said he now wishes he had campaigned actively against the governor.

“I think somebody has to run against him, and I think somebody will,” Mr. Williams said.

Progressives backed de Blasio in the fight:

Liberals who have long chafed under Gov. Andrew Cuomo's centrist governing are thrilled that Mayor Bill de Blasio attacked the governor Tuesday for stymieing the city's agenda in Albany.

"Democrats are angry with a governor whose word is not trustworthy, and who pursues Republican policies," said Zephyr Teachout, a Fordham Law School professor who challenged Mr. Cuomo in the 2014 Democratic primary. "Republicans are tired of him, too, as he seems less driven by ideas or governing and more by power and intrigue."

...

When Ms. Teachout bid for the Working Families Party endorsement last year, Mr. de Blasio helped persuade the party to give its ballot line to Mr. Cuomo. Still, she said she has no hard feelings for the mayor and is grateful that his dispute with Mr. Cuomo has finally spilled out into the public sphere.

"He made a big mistake [in backing Mr. Cuomo last year], I think, but I generally agree with him and am thrilled he's standing up," she said. "Punditry aside, New Yorkers really need leaders who are going to openly have their back, and say what they think. I liked him before, but I like him even better now."

...

 

"The mayor is reiterating what many of us feel," said Jonathan Westin, executive director of New York Communities for Change and a member of the Working Families Party. "His comments were a breath of fresh air."

Mr. Westin spent much of this legislative session protesting against Mr. Cuomo for not pushing harder to protect rent-regulated tenants. He said the mayor's comments could prove to be a galvanizing moment for those on the political left, who until now have been flailing against the governor or felt snookered by him.

"When we actually have a mayor that has his soapbox and is calling [Mr. Cuomo] out when he is not staying true to his word, then I think we have a much bigger megaphone to go out and push our policies," he said.

And the biggest sign that this is a problem for Cuomo - his loyalists are concerned:

Once relegated to whispers, a growing number of Democrats no longer are afraid to publicly take on Cuomo. They say two factors are at work: what de Blasio described as an “accumulated experience” in dealing with the governor and the realities that Cuomo’s poll numbers have been diving and his re-election last year was less than overwhelming.

...

If the governor’s team is keeping a stiff upper lip about Democratic relations, the situation has Cuomo loyalists worried. They talk of another recent governor, Eliot L. Spitzer, who also had problems with fellow Democrats.

In interviews over the last week, key Democrats say 2015 is turning out to be Cuomo’s most challenging period in office as he walks the tightrope of serving as governor in a diverse state and also titular head of a left-leaning Democratic Party. They say their unhappiness is more complex than complaints by liberal Democrats that he is too cozy with Republicans and some deep-pocketed business interests.

The governor’s supporters also sound anxious.

Assemblywoman Crystal D. Peoples-Stokes, D-Buffalo, who last year was co-chairwoman of Cuomo’s re-election campaign, said that she personally likes Cuomo but that he “really could afford better working relationships with Democrats.”

“Some people feel like he works against them, and that is a negative for our party,” she said, “and I think we could probably get so much more done if it didn’t always have to be one way.”

More and more, de Blasio's criticisms of Cuomo are looking like a watershed moment where the dam breaks and the tide turns against Cuomo.

The key indicator of that is not so much the glee of liberals at de Blaiso's criticism but the worry of Cuomo's dwindling loyalists that Cuomo's got to change but alas, he's probably incapable of it.

Eric Adams Backs De Blasio in Fight With Cuomo

Attorney General Schneiderman, City Council Speaker Mark-Viverito and Public Advocate James all declined to back Bill de Blasio for his comments yesterday blasting Governor Cuomo, but de Blasio did get public support from Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams:

One Democrat who did have Mr. de Blasio’s back was Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams. Mr. Adams, a former Democratic state senator, defended the mayor after he spoke at Mr. Schneiderman’s event, telling the Observer he was “grateful” Mr. de Blasio spoke out.

He blamed Mr. Cuomo for helping Senate Republicans gerrymander their districts, not adequately funding public schools, and failing to sufficiently strengthen rent regulations.

“We’re frustrated and angry and expect more from a Democratic governor,” he said.

I understand Dems like Scheiderman, James and Mark-Viverito not wanting to pick a fight with Cuomo that they didn't start, but this kind of caution veers into co-dependency when it comes to Cuomo.

So far, no prominent Dems have come out in support of Cuomo (despite his calling around to get some public support), a couple have backed de Blasio (state senator Mark Panepinto and now Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams.)

We'll see how this progresses.

Conjecture from some journos on twitter is that this battle will peter out as both Cuomo and de Blasio realize they have more to lose than gain, and that it will all end with some "beer summit" bro-hug.

Perhaps.

Nonetheless I think it was important for de Blasio to stop the abuse and take a public stand against Cuomo.

As Alex Balk wrote at The Awl today:

For those of us who have feared that, rather than craftily allowing himself to appear as an amiable dunce in an attempt to do liberalism by stealth, de Blasio actually is just a big fucking dummy who means well but couldn’t tie his shoes without asking for four different perspectives on whether you put the left lace over the right or the other way around, it’s a pleasure to see him finally stand up for himself, whether or not it will have a negative effect on how the governor treats the city from now on. (What’s Cuomo going to do, fuck New York over worse? He’s boxed out from running for president and if he wants a third term he’s not going to get it on votes from Utica and Plattsburgh alone.) 

Seriously, how much worse can Cuomo screw NYC over than he a;ready has?

Especially now that de Blasio has torn back the curtain and said "Hey, guy's a prick, he screws with us just to screw with us and we now expect more since I've gone public with the bullshit games he plays."

And especially since Cuomo's already roundly hated upstate and only survives with approval ratings above Spitzer levels because of the support he has in NYC.

Cuomo Calling Around, Trying To Get Dems To Stand With Him Against De Blasio

Well, that didn't take long.

Yesterday Mayor Bill de Blasio unloaded on Governor Andrew Cuomo, calling him a transactional politician who governs by vendetta and has no political allegiance to anything or anybody except his own career.

Today, Cuomo starts the counterattack:

2 Dem Party sources:Cuomo admin calling around today seeking Dems to publicly back Cuomo in fight w/ de Blasio.

— Tom Precious (@TomPreciousALB) July 1, 2015

So far, it's been de Blasio who's gotten backing from fellow Dems.

Yesterday there was this in Ross Barkan's Observer piece on the feud:

Among top Democrats in New York, Mr. Cuomo is virtually friendless. He has burned bridges with Sen. Charles Schumer, Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli. Ditto the rank-and-file party activists motivated more by ideology than Mr. Cuomo’s centrist pragmatism.

...

An Albany Democrat was similarly blunt.

“I think what you are seeing is that the governor has no friends and that is because he has no actual beliefs and vision,” the Democrat said. “He just wants to win.”

State Senator Mark Panepinto went on record last night backing de Blasio in the battle with Cuomo:

During a wide-ranging CapTon interview last night, Buffalo Sen. Marc Panepinto unleashed on the governor, saying he had “lined up with the Senate Republicans against the mayor of New York City” during the end of the 2015 session.

“Poor Mayor de Blasio,” Panepinto said. “There wasn’t one thing that the governor agreed with him on, even though they share a party affiliation.”

The senator’s comments echoed the mayor’s very public venting of his frustrations with the governor over the past six months, which included an accusation that the Senate Republicans were under Cuomo’s “control” when it came to thwarting NYC’s agenda.

Panepinto insisted he has a “great deal of respect for the governor, but he wants to rule the Democratic Party with an iron fist.”

“We’re a party of inclusion we’re a party of discussion…and it’s been my impression during my short time in state government that Governor Cuomo often doesn’t like those debates,” the senator said. 

Cuomo privately backed Panepinto's Republican opponent, former state Senator Mark Grisanti, last November as payback for Grisanti's backing Cuomo on gay marriage, so Panepinto owes Cuomo nothing.

Still, you've already got one Dem on record echoing de Blasio's remarks and at least one Dem off the record doing the same.

We'll see how many Dems come out to support Cuomo - I suspect we'll see a few who owe either their jobs or their political relevance to Cuomo back him.

That means the inevitable David Paterson statement of support (though as Louis Flores pointed out, Cuomo played games with Paterson back in the day too) and a few others.

Political consultants who've worked for Cuomo will warn us that de Blasio is wrong here (you know, like Hank Scheinkopf), but again, they'll have expedient reasons to do so.

Otherwise, I bet Cuomo's going to have some trouble getting fellow Democrats or party activists to publicly back him.

After all the years of screw jobs, Cuomo has alienated nearly everybody in the political establishment and sits isolated in his darkened room on the second floor making his phone calls that nobody wants to get or act upon.

The Bigger Risk For De Blasio Was Staying Silent While Cuomo Mauled Him

I keep reading this morning about the "risk" that Mayor Bill de Blasio took in publicly blasting Governor Andrew Cuomo as a transactional politician who governs by vendetta.

See here, here, here, and here.

But even a few critics of de Blasio's critique acknowledge how badly Andrew Cuomo has treated Bill de Blasio and NYC in the 18 months de Blasio has been mayor.

Josh Greenman wrote up a list of the barbs, arrows, slights and outright screw jobs Cuomo has sent de Blasio's way in the past year and a half:

In the midst of the Ebola crisis last fall, Cuomo failed to consult the mayor before making major policy announcements.

Ditto when Cuomo decided to shut the city’s subways before a snowstorm.

When de Blasio put forward a plan to build housing at Queens’ Sunnyside Yards — a goal Cuomo should have been able to work with — Cuomo snippily replied the space wasn’t available.

This year, agreeing with the state’s request, de Blasio and the city were set to pony up more money than ever to support the buses and subways — only to be attacked by Cuomo’s MTA as cheapskates after the budget had gone to press.

Against his better fiscal instincts, Cuomo fought against de Blasio in favor of hiking disability pensions for cops and firefighters — which would have saddled the city with huge bills.

Having previously been a champion of mayoral control of the schools, Cuomo gladly accepted Republicans’ insulting one-year extension.

And when de Blasio offered vital, pragmatic reforms to the 421-a housing tax credit, Cuomo had nothing to offer but out-of-character complaints that de Blasio was shortchanging construction workers.

And Ken Lovett gets an unnamed former Bloomberg aide to note that considering how badly Cuomo was treating his "friend" Bill de Blasio, the mayor had nothing to lose:

Seasoned observers understand why the mayor got fed up. A one-time aide to Michael Bloomberg, who as mayor had his own problems with Cuomo, said that the governor “never made Bloomberg feel like he had nothing left to lose, but that’s what he’s done to de Blasio and I think Cuomo will regret it.”

Don't forget too that Cuomo started the public feud by criticizing de Blasio to Ken Lovett last week, but doing it through the beard of an "unnamed" source in the Cuomo administration who turned out to speak exactly the way Andrew Cuomo speaks.

I think this tweet sums up the bigger risk for de Blasio than openly returning fire at Cuomo:

@joshgreenman the risk comes from staying silent. Cuomo already shunned NYC repeatedly, so may as well pull back the curtain for the public

— Blöke in Brööklyn (@BrooklynShaun) July 1, 2015

Sure, de Blasio's taken a risk by being so open and forthright in his criticisms of Cuomo (Elias Isquith tweeted that de Blasio had nuked the bridge between he and Cuomo - then nuked the ashes), but quite frankly, the bigger risk was, Brooklyn Shaun said, in staying silent as Cuomo took it to him over and over and over.

By calling out Cuomo as a vindictive politician who governs by vendetta, by pointing out all the ways Cuomo screwed NYC not because of policy differences or principle but simply because he wanted to remain top dog in the political equation, by saying that he expects Cuomo to retaliate and he will call him out publicly when he does so, de Blasio puts some onus onto Cuomo when he screws NYC going forward.

De Blasio is helped here too by the fact that Cuomo has destroyed every relationship he has with other prominent Democrats:

De Blasio joins a growing list of state Democrats, including Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, Controller Thomas DiNapoli, Senate Democrats and many Assembly Dems, who are no longer afraid to speak their minds when it comes to Cuomo.

Other than party hacks who owe their employment/political relevance to Cuomo  (e.g., David Paterson, Chris Quinn, et al.) who's backing Cuomo in a fight with de Blasio?

No one from the list above, that's for sure.

I would add our two senators to the list of pols unlikely to back Cuomo as well, especially Schumer, who is said to loathe Cuomo with a passion Chuck usually reserves for camera opportunities.

Certainly not party activists, as I pointed out in a post last night - many are fuming over Cuomo's betrayal on rent regulations.

And by saying publicly that Cuomo governs by vendetta and he now expects a few aimed the city's way, de Blasio puts some pressure on Cuomo:

BdB predicting Cuomo would punish him was a pretty slick PR move. Prittay prittay prittay slick

— Elias Isquith (@eliasisquith) June 30, 2015

De Blasio in part enabled Cuomo by helping to engineer the Working Families Party ballot nod last May and by helping Cuomo win re-election.
 
De Blasio seemed to do this because he thought he would have some chits he could call on later with Cuomo, but as many of us pointed out at the time, Cuomo doesn't play that game and de Blasio was likely to lose it.

That's of course exactly what happened - Cuomo went out of his way to screw de Blasio and NYC every way he could.

De Blasio could have stayed silent and acted the co-dependent here as Cuomo continued to use and abuse him, but I give de Blasio a lot of credit for taking the gloves off, getting very pointed in his criticism of Cuomo and doing it openly.

Now it's important for activists, other Dems, and city residents to back de Blasio in this fight with Cuomo, not because they like or support de Blasio, but simply because de Blasio has become the face of the "Fight Cuomo" movement here.

Others have criticized Cuomo before, but none so openly and frankly as de Blasio.

Sure there was risk in this for de Blasio and NYC, but the bigger risk was continuing to stay in the abusive relationship with Cuomo.

Everybody Hates Andrew Cuomo

There's some conjecture on twitter that Mayor de Blasio has made a big mistake by publicly blasting Governor Cuomo in such a scathing way, that Cuomo will exact revenge on de Blasio and the city and it won't be pretty:

Understand Hizzoner's frustrations but torching Himself is risky business. BdB won't take it anymore? Says who?l ... http://t.co/DCeSGqCV4C

— Michael Powell (@powellnyt) June 30, 2015

can someone explain how @BilldeBlasio comes out ahead after attacking Cuomo as spiteful & revengeful? @JimmyVielkind @bobhardt @harrysiegel

— Azi (@Azi) June 30, 2015

But Ross Barkan at the Observer reports progressives are rallying to de Blasio:

When Mayor Bill de Blasio eviscerated Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a fellow Democrat, in an unusually candid press conference earlier today, there was the usual chatter about a vindictive governor readying to punish an unruly mayor who didn’t know his place.

But among progressive Democrats frustrated at an executive who they see as antithetical to their values, there was elation. For Democrats in New York City and Albany, Mr. de Blasio’s sudden decision to publicly air his grievances at Mr. Cuomo was long-awaited, the equivalent of a come-to-Jesus moment.

“The only way to make progress with Andrew is to attack him. If you attack him effectively, he’ll cave. He’s a bully,” said Bill Samuels, a prominent liberal activist and fundraiser. “The verdict for Cuomo for many of us was decided long ago.”

When Mr. de Blasio fumed that he had been “disappointed at every turn” with Mr. Cuomo and admitted he couldn’t “tell you that I can place his philosophy at this point,” liberals found their conscience given voice in the mayor of New York City.

And Barkan reports that few will rally to Cuomo because, well, he has no friends:

Among top Democrats in New York, Mr. Cuomo is virtually friendless. He has burned bridges with Sen. Charles Schumer, Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli. Ditto the rank-and-file party activists motivated more by ideology than Mr. Cuomo’s centrist pragmatism.

If Mr. Cuomo enacts payback on Mr. de Blasio, a city of eight million people could suffer, and Mr. de Blasio can point to a scapegoat in the governor. He has the advantage of the largest media market in the world to disseminate his message; Mr. Cuomo, never one for cameras or microphones, has Albany.

...

“Enough is enough. This isn’t about personalities. It’s about one personality playing politics and using 8.5 million people as pawns,” crowed one de Blasio loyalist.

An Albany Democrat was similarly blunt.

“I think what you are seeing is that the governor has no friends and that is because he has no actual beliefs and vision,” the Democrat said. “He just wants to win.”

While no politician has been as openly blunt as de Blasio in their criticism of Cuomo they have been critical:

De Blasio is only the latest Dem to open up on Cuomo. He's been attacked by Dems in Senate, Assembly, and city council for most of the year

— Nick Reisman (@NickReisman) June 30, 2015

Progressives have been quite critical of Cuomo, especially tenant activists, who hammered Cuomo after he sold them out on rent regulations.

Here was Alliance for Tenant Power's Katie Goldstein last week:

Our worst fears about Governor Cuomo have been confirmed. He took no action at all to strengthen the rent laws. Cuomo made empty promises and lied repeatedly while helping the Senate Republicans advance a bill that is a massive giveaway to landlords. Cuomo’s Republican deal on rent will harm and endanger countless low-income and working-class households. Up to 100,000 rent-regulated apartments will be lost over the next four years because of Cuomo’s Republican deal. This four-year extender does nothing to empower tenants. In fact, it leaves the most vulnerable even more susceptible to landlord harassment and skyrocketing rents. Cuomo should change his party registration to Republican because he is not worthy of the Democratic Party and its most basic values. Cuomo will suffer big political consequences for his betrayal of tenants and Democrats and for solidifying his status as a Republican Governor.

We were right to challenge Cuomo at every turn and not trust him throughout our campaign for stronger rent laws. Cuomo never had any intention of introducing his own pro-tenant bill. We will now lose many more rent-regulated units because of Cuomo’s failure to deliver for tenants and for working families. Today Cuomo alienated and angered millions of New Yorkers. We look forward to helping a strong Democrat defeat Cuomo if he foolishly tries to run for a third term as Governor.

Cuomo has few friends in the media as well:

Will some NY reporter please do story we deserve on Cuomo press tactics, various levels of attribution, preemptive& post-facto calls, etc?

— Jonathan Martin (@jmartNYT) June 30, 2015

And people are calling Cuomo out for going on the attack using "anonymity":

Hey @errollouis we gonna cover the BdB conflict with that well placed source in the Cuomo administration on @InsideCityHall tonight?

— Anthony Weiner (@anthonyweiner) June 30, 2015

Weiner's referring to Cuomo's thinly disguised attack on de Blasio last week, using an unnamed "well-placed source" in the Cuomo administration who just happened to be Cuomo himself.

Give de Blasio credit for not only blasting Cuomo but doing it openly and honestly.

Cuomo, on the other hand, knows nothing about either openness or honesty:

@thomaskaplan At least BdB had guts to go on record. Cuomo does same behind the cover of "unnamed sources."

— rbe (@perdidostschool) June 30, 2015

I dunno how this all shakes out - de Blasio is going on a two week vacation with his family and journalists weren't invited to tag along.

You can be sure Cuomo will be working behind the scenes to destroy de Blasio, starting tonight, probably with some of those preemptive and post-facto phone calls that Jonathan Martin referred to in his tweet - Cuomo's famous for that.

But we might have hit a watershed moment here with de Blasio's criticism.

It's in the open now - a prominent Democrat has said publicly that Andrew Cuomo is no Democrat, that his only allegiance is to himself and he goes out of his way to harm constituents simply to stick it to fellow politicians.

De Blasio's criticism is the unvarnished truth and everybody I've mentioned in this post knows it - from the media members conjecturing on twitter about the wisdom (or lack thereof) of de Blasio's criticism to the activists who are already are rallying to de Blasio in this fight to the unnamed Dem who told Barkan Andrew is friendless.

De Blasio's gone to the mattresses in open war against Andrew Cuomo but he's not without help here.

Everybody I know is sick of Cuomo, sick of his shadowy vengeful act and ready to take him down.

De Blasio's extraordinarily frank and honest criticism of Cuomo is the rallying cry for just that.