Tuesday, June 30, 2015

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:


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:


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:


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


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:



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.

7 comments:

  1. I watched De Blasio on TV and I was impressed that he was standing up to Cuomo.

    Abigail Shure

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    1. I can't recall another time when a politician blasted another politician in the same party with whom he has to work with as frankly as de Blasio did today.

      I give him points for standing up like this so publicly and bluntly.

      Yes, he helped engineer the WFP sellout, and surely this doesn't make up for that.

      But it does create one of those conversation moments when we'll get to see just how many friends Cuomo has that support him.

      They'll be David Paterson of course. Chris Quinn and the other pols that need him. And the Dem consultants/prostitutes who are on his payroll (e.g., Hank Scheinkopf.)

      But I bet not many others.

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  2. Unfortunately, all this fighting is not going to do one damn thing for the teachers of New York City and State. Cuomo gave us the shaft and there is nothing that Bill DeB can do about it now. If I may quote FULL METAL JACKET: "It's a shit sandwich and we're all gonna have to take a bite".

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  3. For sure re. the poo sandwich. Thats a given.
    Agreeing with RBE that its a good thing to see de Blasio come out with some strong words against Cuomo. It fluffs up those who stand against Cuomo pretty good. Honesty in the public political discourse is always a net positive, but a couple points:

    1) There will be a strong counterattack, both rhetorically, and probably in a more tangible way.....not sure what that would be, but it will probably make de Blasio look like a beeeeaytch. Cuomo will deploy the pimphand. de Blasio knows this...knows that getting into one of these attack/counter-attack relationships is Cuomo's bread and butter. de Blasio has entered upon Cuomo's ground....nasty, Real Housewives-style vengange/revenge/nasty fights. Its Cuomo's language...his genre.

    2) When the dust settles, there will be a predictably public and over-the-top "working together," "we are partners" moment that will actually be de Blasio getting down on his knees and again accepting the hegemonic authority of Cuomo. This is where things get dangerous for us as citizens and possibly as teachers. Its in the genuflection to power that some really awful policy gets put into place. Watch for this. The salve for the sting of the pimphand in politics is often the greased-rails to very bad policies.

    3) Cuomo may use this to re-energize not only his political capital, but also his agenda, as stated above. And we have to be prepared for how he may be successful. Every day that he is not indicted means that he exists politically....we tend to think Cuomo is declining....and maybe he is...but he doesn't think so even for a second. And thats the thing....there will never be a moment for Cuomo, even in the last split-seconds, that he gives up. He will be trying to survive politically past the end. That means he will be pushing his agenda and ideas very strongly and not softening. In so many ways, Cuomo's agenda gets nastier with more headwind he faces. And his pimphand is fierce....look how he played that charter school rally thing last year. I feel like it emboldened his already superstrong charter school agenda. Cuomo is the type that says "oh, you don't like X? Well now you have to eat 3 X!" Hes that cruel douchey older brother/bully.

    So, anyway, the stage is now set. Get your popcorn ready, and prepare for a deeper and more thorough shitshow!

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  4. I can't help but keep thinking of last September's Labor Day parade and how our a-hole guv kept asking: "Where's the Mayor?" when he had his goons blocking Zephyr Teachout from reaching out to shake hands. This stand-offish behavior is vintage Cuomo. He's a low-life who surrounds himself with yes-people who have to repeatedly tell him how "special" he is. All of this is likely part of Cuomo's long-standing flawed personality that obviously dates back to his upbringing by Mario who must of not given Andrew enough daddy love. So, Cuomo becomes a political bully who has adopted a "you do right for me, I do right for you" motto in life EXCEPT: Cuomo has ventured so far to the right of his fake democrat party affiliation that he is almost a carbon copy of the extreme conservative posturing of Wisconsin's Scott Walker.

    Like the 'other' governor bully on the other side of the GWB, Cuomo loves the "game" of one-upping his underlings. Now that he has successfully alienated most of the NYS democratic party leadership perhaps they will finally looking for a REAL democrat for the next go-around.

    Personally speaking, if NYC doesn't finally come to its senses about Cuomo's true colors, then they deserve all the bad stuff that Andrew Cuomo will keep slinging at them. Cuomo's on the take and Preet Bharara is nowhere to be found? What is Bharara waiting for?

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  5. Bhrara was a stooge sent by Washington to give Cuomo all he needs. Cuomo used Moreland Commission as a fishing expedition for blackmail material. He shut it down and gave the ammo to Preet to deep six the leadership so as to scare the rank and file into lining up with Cuomo.

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