Why Cuomo Can Be Beat In His Coming Assault On Public Education

At the end of Jeff Smith's entertaining and astute review of Andrew Cuomo's memoir comes this:

Ebola antics aside, Andrew Cuomo will win reelection comfortably next week, but he has almost never looked weaker, especially with an open federal investigation grinding away. And that’s a fact that he’ll have plenty of time to chew over during the months ahead, as he and Ms. Lee nibble on fresh, locally sourced home-cooked meals at the Governor’s Mansion for the next four years.

Under investigation by a federal prosecutor and publicly warned by the same federal prosecutor to stop tampering with that investigation.

A punchline on The Daily Show for his fumbling, stumbling Ebola response this past week.

Reviled by people on the left in the state, 34% of whom voted for Zephyr Teachout in September's primary - the highest total for any challenger to a sitting governor in a primary since the current system was first instituted.

Reviled by parents and educators for his education policies, many of whom are vowing to vote for one of Cuomo's two opponents next week - Republican Rob Astorino or Green Party candidate Howie Hawkins.

Cuomo attacked teachers and schools yesterday when he threatened to "break" the public school system and impose "more rigorous" teacher evaluations with "sanctions" on teachers already struggling under his nightmarish APPR evaluation system.

The NYSUT leadership waved a flag of surrender in the face of that attack.

The AFT and UFT response was muted as well.

So Cuomo's not going to get much pushback on his coming attacks from the union leaders.

But judging by the outrage I saw on the Internet and heard at school yesterday, he's going to get a lot from ordinary people.

And given all the other trouble Cuomo's got (and he's got trouble - his campaign has asked for helped from Bill Clinton this week on the campaign trail, suggesting his internal polling is showing a closer race than the public polls have so far shown), that pushback from ordinary people, teachers and parents, can stand for a lot.

This is NOT the Cuomo of the first term, with an 80% approval rating that allowed him to govern with a "My way or your roadkill" mentality.

This is the Cuomo under federal investigation, the Cuomo who groveled to the Working Families Party in May for their ballot line, then lost half the counties in the state in his primary anyway, the Cuomo who's become a punchline on TV and a punching bag in the newspapers.

This is the Cuomo so scared of his standing with the public that he attempted to look tough with his Ebola response and instead just looked weak and desperate.

This is the Cuomo in enough trouble in this election that he needs Bill Clinton to save him in the days before voting.

This is the Cuomo that CAN be beaten in a battle over education policy.

NY Times: Christie And Cuomo Are Buffoons

Governors Christie and Cuomo talked tough on Friday when announcing their new mandatory 21 day quarantine policy for anybody who had come in contact with someone infected with the Ebola virus.

But Monday that tough talk was in tatters, with both governors having walked back the policies while claiming they hadn't.

Kate Zenike and Thomas Kaplan have a devastating summary of the Christie/Cuomo journey from tough to tatters in the NY Times this morning:

Shifting stances and a lack of clear standards from the governors of New York and New Jersey over their Ebola quarantine policy left critics and even some allies questioning on Monday whether the two men had fully worked through the details before they announced it.

...

Govs. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York and Chris Christie of New Jersey said on Friday that they were imposing their strict new mandatory quarantine because standards from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had been inadequate.

But on Monday, faced with criticism from the nurse who had been detained in Newark as the test case of the new quarantine, Mr. Christie said the C.D.C. — not New Jersey — had been responsible for hospitalizing her and giving her the Ebola test in the first place.

By Monday, the White House, the United Nations secretary general and civil-liberties groups, with varying degrees of anger, were accusing Mr. Christie and Mr. Cuomo of putting politics ahead of science, at the risk of deterring health care workers needed to treat the disease at its origin in Africa.

The governors, who recently appeared side by side to declare their resolve and strategy against the Islamic State, said on Friday that they needed clear policy to combat hysteria. But three days of apparent reversals — though both governors said there had been none — only helped to fan public confusion. (A re-released, but inaccurate, transcript compounded matters.)

The Times journalists report that health officials in both New Jersey and New York have gotten no guidance from the governors on how to carry out the new policies.

They also report that Governor Cuomo's PR flak sent a transcript of the Friday Cuomo/Christie presser that was edited to make it sound like Cuomo's Monday policy shift (quarantees could stay at home) was what the governor had intended overall.

When the Times noted the transcript was edited for inaccuracy, the Cuomo PR flak said the "omissions" in the transcript were a mistake.

Christie and Cuomo wanted to look tough and decisive with this Ebola policy.

They wanted it to be a master stroke of political maneuvering, which is why they announced it on Friday without giving any heads up to anybody in the various municipal or federal agencies who would be helping to carry out the protocols, let lone their fellow politicians.

But as I first thought on Friday when I heard these two clowns talk tough at their press conference, they put the politics before the policy and had no plan to carry out their tough talk.

I've said a couple of times on Twitter that these two schmucks can't get the PATH to run right, how can they put together a complex quarantine policy overnight without the help of health officials?

And the reality was, they couldn't.

Health officials are still waiting for the policy details from both Christie and Cuomo.

Maybe the public only pays attention to the tough talk part and the poll numbers of both men rise as a result of this fiasco.

That's possible - there's a lot of fear out there over Ebola and I could see many people supporting Christie and Cuomo on this.

But if you're really paying attention to what these two men did, you have seen them exposed as buffoons who put their political careers over the public's health and did it rather ineptly.

Cuomo Says People Under Ebola Quarantine Should Read His Book

Governor Narcissist returns to his favorite subject - himself:

Gov. Cuomo downplayed the burden of following the mandatory 21 day quarantine he ordered for returning Ebola health workers - and joked they should pick up his new book as a way to pass the time.

"I'm asking those people who were in contact with infected people - stay at home for 21 days. We will pay. Enjoy your family. Enjoy your kids. Enjoy your friends,” Cuomo said. “Read a book. Read my book. You don't have to read my book. But stay at home for 21 days.”

Yeah, he was joking about reading his book.

The part that seems like a joke but isn't is this:

He's quarantining people who have had contact with people who have contracted Ebola but allowing family and friends to come and go to see the potentially-infected quarantee.

Doesn't that kinda undercut the whole effectiveness part of the quarantine?

Doesn't this seem not just another half-assed Cuomo policy, ill-conceived, ill-thought out, ill-carried out?

Cuomo's Ebola Quarantine Eerily Similar To The State's Common Core Roll-Out

A commenter at Perdido Street School writes the following about Andrew's Cuomo Ebola quarantine policy that kept shifting over the weekend:

This policy roll out seems in the vein as the Common Core Rollout. No Plan, No Research, No Officials of the Medical Community. Common Core Roll Out- No Research, No Plan, No Officials of the Education Community.

Like his education policies, Cuomo's public health policies are driven by political caluclations and political calculations only.

So why bother consulting with experts?

Is anybody more expert in what Andrew Cuomo needs than Andrew Cuomo?

Chris Christie Sets Up Gitmo On The Passaic For His Ebola Quarantine Victims

Imagine you are a health care professional thinking about going to West Africa to help with the Ebola outbreak.

Imagine you will be flying out of and into Newark Airport for your trip.

Imagine this is what awaits you - a mandatory quarantine when you get back:

On Sunday both governors, Andrew M. Cuomo of New York and Chris Christie of New Jersey, stood by their decisions, saying that the current federal guidelines did not go far enough.

At the same time, the first person to be forced into isolation under the new protocols, Kaci Hickox, a nurse returning from Sierra Leone, planned to mount a legal challenge to the quarantine order. Despite having no symptoms, she has been kept under quarantine at a hospital in New Jersey, where she has been confined to a tent equipped with a portable toilet and no shower. On Sunday, she spoke to CNN about the way she has been treated, describing it as “inhumane.”

... 

Ms. Hickox spoke out about her treatment in her interview with CNN on Sunday, saying that officials still have not told her what they plan to do next or why they are isolating her since she poses no public health risk as long as she remains asymptomatic.

She also blasted Mr. Christie for saying that she was sick, when it was clear that she did not have a fever and had tested negative for Ebola.

“The first thing I would say to Governor Christie is that I wish he would be more careful about his statements about my medical condition,” she said from inside the medical tent where she has been quarantined since Friday night. “If he knew anything about Ebola, he would know that asymptomatic people are not infectious.”

“I also want to be treated with compassion and humanity, and I don’t feel I’ve been treated that way in the past three days,” she said in the interview. “I think this is an extreme that is really unacceptable. I feel like my basic human rights have been violated.”

Ms. Hickox has retained a well-known civil rights lawyer, Norman Siegel, to challenge the quarantine order and get her out of isolation. In an interview on Sunday, he said the order “raised substantial civil liberties issues.”

She should sue Christie personally.

Let's run through the facts again:

Christie has her isolated in a tent outside the hospital.

There's no shower but there is a Porta Potty.

She's being detained there even though she has shown no signs of infection.

Christie plans to keep her there for at least 21 days.

No word on whether he plans to waterboard her.

New York has instituted a similar mandatory quarantine, other states are following suit.

Imagine again that you are a health care professional looking to help out in West Africa with the Ebola crisis.

Are you going to go knowing when you come back you will be treated like a criminal?

Cuomo Admits His Mandatory Ebola Quarantine Is Toothless And Unenforceable (UPDATE - 11:58 AM)

UPDATE - 11:58 AM: Perhaps realizing how ridiculous he looks after instituting a mandatory quarantine that he says won't be enforced, Cuomo now says his quarantine plan is enforceable:

In a radio interview on Sunday morning, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York said that it was important to be able to compel people to monitor themselves under the force of law.

“If you had someone who didn’t want to cooperate, you can enforce it legally, there’s no doubt about that,” he said on Radio 103.9, adding that it was “highly unlikely” that a health care worker returning from the affected West Africa nations would object.

Highly unlikely that a health care worker returning from West Africa won't want to cooperate with the mandatory quarantine?

The first case - the nurse currently being detained by Governor Chris Christie in New Jersey - doesn't want to cooperate with it.

You can bet there will be somebody in New York who will feel the same way.

What will Cuomo do then?


ORIGINAL POST: Andrew Cuomo and Chris Christie talked tough during their Friday press conference when they announced a mandatory quarantine for anybody coming through either JFK or Newark airports who had worked with or had contact with Ebola patients.

As soon as they made the announcement, skeptics of the plan (including myself) began asking, "Where do they get the authority to detain people at the airport?  How will they force people without symptoms into a quarantine if they don't want to be quarantined?"

Another criticism of the plan was the lack of clarity and details - just where would they keep the people who had been caught up in the Cuomo/Christie mandatory quarantine?

I blogged on Friday that it seemed like Christie and Cuomo had made their "tough new protocol" announcement well before they actually had the plan in place to carry that protocol out.

Today it sounds like that's exactly what happened.

The Daily News reports this morning Governor Cuomo has admitted he has no idea how the mandatory quarantine will be carried out or enforced:

Gov. Cuomo acknowledged his tough quarantine policy for health-care workers returning from West Africa was somewhat toothless and possibly unenforceable.

“Could you have a hostile person who doesn’t want to be quarantined?” the governor asked Saturday during a campaign swing through Queens. “I suppose you could. But that hasn’t been the case yet.”

The governor said officials had never considered whether people refusing to go along with the order could face prosecution or arrest.

“It’s nothing that we’ve discussed, no,” he said.

Pressed on where the passengers would spend their 21-day quarantine, Cuomo made it sound almost voluntary.

“Some people could be quarantined in a hospital if they wanted to be,” he suggested.

Perhaps Cuomo has learned a lesson from what's happening in Chris Christie's New Jersey.

A nurse who had worked with Ebola patients in West Africa was detained at Newark Airport and put into a mandatory quarantine at Newark University Hospital even though she says she has exhibited no symptoms of the Ebola virus.

The nurse wrote an article for the Dallas Morning News in which she said the mandatory quarantine protocol was characterized by fear and disorganization, that New Jersey officials had no idea what they were doing.

Governor Christie, politicking in Iowa, falsely claimed on Saturday that the nurse was ill when he was called to defend his order to quarantine her.

Christie, under attack over the illegal detention and subject to legal action by the nurse, has not backed down - she is still under mandatory detention in Newark.

But Cuomo now seems to be saying that he won't do the same in New York if a person comes through JFK who doesn't want to be quarantined.

There appears to be daylight between Cuomo and Christie on Sunday where there was none on Friday.

As soon as Cuomo and Christie announced their mandatory policy on Friday, I thought they were playing politics with the Ebola crisis - particularly because Cuomo had taken pains on Thursday night to tamp down fears over Ebola in NYC.

With Cuomo now admitting his mandatory quarantine will be toothless and unenforceable in New York, it becomes quite clear that was the case.

Is there anything more despicable than politicians playing electoral politics with a public health crisis?

Are there any politicians in this country more despicable than Chris Christie or Andrew Cuomo?

These two clowns - who can't get the PATH trains to run well, btw - tried to ride the wave of fear and anxiety many are feeling over Ebola by putting in place an ill-conceived, ill-thought out mandatory quarantine plan.

Cuomo And Christie Play Politics With Ebola

If there was any doubt Christie and Cuomo are playing politics with their mandatory Ebola quarantine in New Jersey and New York, this should dispense with those doubts:

A mandatory quarantine imposed by New York and New Jersey on health care workers who came into contact with Ebola victims in West Africa blindsided many local and federal health officials, according o a report.

"They're not happy," a federal official told CNN regarding the federal Centers for Disease and Control and Prevention. "These two governors said, 'Take this, federal government.' They're very worried we won't be able to get physicians or nurses to go (to countries affected by the Ebola outbreak)."

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie announced the quarantine Friday a day after Dr. Craig Spencer - a volunteer for Doctors Without Borders - tested positive for the disease.

A New York City official also told the news agency the announcement was a "real stunner."

"They did this without consulting the city, and that's not a good thing," the official said of the two governors. "They didn't let anyone know in advance."

Why would Cuomo and Christie announce a major shift in Ebola protocol without consulting with any other agency - municipal or federal - before that announcement?

Because this decision was based on political calculations, not the health and welfare of the people of New York and New Jersey.

Cuomo wants to respond to criticism from his gubernatorial opponent, Rob Astorino, that he isn't handling the Ebola crisis well by showing how tough he can be.

Cuomo also wants to raise his national profile (which he has been doing, appearing on all the morning shows) for a potential presidential run in the future.

Christie is politicking in Iowa even now as I write - he's ostensibly there as head of the Republican Governors Association, but he's really there as a precursor to a 2016 run for the White House.

He too wants to look tough in his Ebola response, contrast that "toughness" with the response of the Obama administration, and ride that during a presidential bid.

On Friday when they first announced the mandatory new quarantine, questions were already raised about the legality and practicality of the protocol.

By yesterday, Cuomo had already walked back some of Friday's tough talk as he watched his pal Christie get beaten up for detaining a nurse not showing any symptoms of Ebola who had flown into Newark after working with Doctors Without Borders in Sierra Leone.

In some strange way, these two clowns may have screwed themselves politically with their masterful Ebola quarantine surprise announcement on Friday.

Maybe if they'd checked with municipal and federal officials before they announced the change in protocol, they could have figured out a way to force the federal government's hand in instituting a more stringent protocol for medical professionals coming back from working with Ebola patients.

Instead they made headlines of their own on Friday and have been on the defense since.

In the end, instead of seeing their poll numbers and profile rise as a result of their "tough new Ebola quarantine protocol," they may become victims of their own arrogance and hubris.

Let's hope - because this surprise quarantine announcement, made without consulting any other agency or entity involved in tackling the crisis or without a proper plan to carry it out put into place, is a disaster that is going to harm more people than it helps.

It was a political stunt, pure and simple, no different than Cuomo showing up in Afghanistan unannounced to "fight terrorism."

Christie, Cuomo Ebola Quarantine Plan Marked By Fear, Disorganization

Governor Christie and Governor Cuomo talked real tough yesterday at their press conference announcing a mandatory quarantine of anyone flying into Newark or JFK who was thought to have worked with Ebola patients overseas:

The governors of New York and New Jersey announced Friday afternoon that they were ordering all people entering the country through two area airports who had direct contact with Ebola patients in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea to be quarantined.

The announcement comes one day after an American doctor, who had worked in Guinea and returned to New York City earlier in October, tested positive for Ebola and became the first New York patient of the deadly virus.

“A voluntary Ebola quarantine is not enough,” said Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York. “This is too serious a public health situation.”

And here's how the first mandatory quarantine went:

A health care worker quarantined at a New Jersey hospital because she had contact with Ebola patients in West Africa is sharply criticizing the way she's been treated.

In a first-person account in the Dallas Morning News, Kaci Hickox wrote Saturday that she encountered fear and disorganization when she arrived Friday at Newark Liberty International Airport. She was stopped and questioned over several hours and was left without food for an extended period, she wrote. No one would explain what was going on or what would happen to her, she said in the piece, which was written with the help of a Dallas Morning News staff writer.

Government officials did not immediately return calls seeking comment from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the New Jersey Department of Health and U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

Hickox is a nurse who had been working with Doctors Without Borders in Sierra Leone. Officials have said she was taken to a hospital after developing a fever, but Hickox wrote that she was merely flushed because she was upset.

Hickox tested negative for Ebola in a preliminary evaluation. Hospital officials won't say whether she will remain quarantined in the hospital for the entire 21 days.

In a statement, Doctors Without Borders said the organization is "very concerned about the conditions and uncertainty (Hickox) is facing and is attempting to obtain information from hospital officials."

"While measures to protect public health are of paramount importance, they must be balanced against the rights of health workers returning from fighting the Ebola outbreak in West Africa to fair and reasonable treatment and the full disclosure of information to them, along with information about intended courses of action from local and state health authorities," the organization said.

As I noted last night, Christie and Cuomo went public with this mandatory quarantine declaration well before they actually have a plan to carry it out.

These two clowns can't get the PATH trains to run well, so you can imagine how swimmingly this mandatory quarantine is going to go.

With the New York and New Jersey governors now apparently sticking anybody they suspect of contact with an Ebola patient into detention for an undisclosed period of time, you can be sure fewer health care professionals are going to want to go and help out with the epidemic in West Africa.

In effect, Cuomo's and Christie's playing politics with the Ebola crisis here in the New York metro area could cause the disease to spread wider.

NY Times: Cuomo, Christie Have No Idea How Ebola Quarantine Plan Will Work

The Times tonight:

The governors of New York and New Jersey on Friday ordered quarantines for all people entering the country through two area airports if they had direct contact with Ebola patients in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

The announcement signaled an immediate shift in mood, since public officials had gone to great lengths to ease public anxiety after a New York City doctor received a diagnosis of Ebola on Thursday. The measures go beyond what federal guidelines require and what infectious disease experts recommend. They were also taken without consulting the city’s health department, according to a senior city official.

...

The new protocols at the airports, outlined by the governors in an afternoon news conference, raised a host of questions, including how the screening process would work and whom it would target. The two airports in question are Kennedy International and Newark.

Officials from New York and New Jersey said they were still working out many details, including where people would be quarantined, how the quarantine would be enforced and how they would handle travelers who do not live in either of those states.

Announcement first.

Plan to carry out what was announced?

Sometime in the future.

We'll let you know, okay?