Sunday, July 5, 2015

The Rumor About Cuomo

Mary Ahern pointed out this article from the Buffalo Chronicle to me today:

William Hochul, Jr. is the United States Attorney for the Western District of New York. He is also the husband of Kathy Hochul, the Lt. Governor and Andrew Cuomo’s 2014 running mate. Last year, during the gubernatorial campaign, the US Attorney was criticized for not pursing a series of public corruption cases that exposed shocking conflicts of interest.

In recent months, he has been recusing himself from cases involving local political operatives.

A source close to the US Attorney tells me that he “fully expects” his wife to become the next Governor of New York, likely by the end of the year.

Cuomo is currently under investigation by the FBI and the State Attorney General’s office. Political operatives expect Cuomo to be pushed out of office under federal indictment later this year, and are wondering if Mrs. Hochul will have the staying power, tact, and political skills to build a governing coalition that secures her reelection.

Western New Yorkers from both parties have an extraordinary interest in ensuring that — when or if Hochul indeed becomes Governor — that her tenure is long and her political standing is formidable.

Some problems with this story:

First, it's sourcing is thin - "political operatives expect..." and "a source close to the US Attorney..." leaves a lot of room for interpretation.

Who's the source close to the US Attorney? Someone who works with the US Attorney or the barista who serves him his morning coffee?

I realize Fred Dicker of the Post does the same thing in his Monday columns, but Dicker's been an Albany figure for decades, so I'll give him the benefit of the doubt there. Matthew Ricchiazzi, who runs the political blog The Buffalo Chronicle, is a 29 year old politician wanna-be who tried to run for mayor of Buffalo in 2009 before the Board of Elections rejected his petition to get on the ballot.

Maybe his sources are as good as Dicker's (or not as good - some people think at times Fred Dicker uses himself as a source!), but whatever the case, I'm not ready to put a lot of faith in them.

Second problem, Ricchiazzi been accused of misquoting people and "reckless reporting" in the past.

That doesn't exactly inspire confidence in me about this report.

Finally, Matthew Ricchiazzi, has his own notoriety in the news this year - for a DWI charge.

So while I enjoy the surfacing of the rumor that Cuomo is to be indicted by the feds before the end of the year, I'm not ready to ride the Buffalo Chronicle report any further than "rumor."

It does bear watching, however.

The NY Post had a leak from what seems to be the US Attorney's office in the Southern District of New York urging Shelly Silver and Dean Skelos to "deal" now that former majority leader Malcolm Smith got a seven year prison sentence for his corruption conviction.

The pattern out of Bharara's office has been a series of leaks every few months that sets up the next bombshell arrest - it started with the Silver leaks in 2014, continued with Silver's arrest the day after Cuomo's state of the state/budget address in January, continued again with leaks about Skelos right after the Silver arrest, continued with Skelos's arrest after the budget was completed in March.

We have now gotten at least one more leak about Silver and Skelos needing to "deal" if they don't want to go away to prison for a long, long time.

Unless I'm way off the mark, that's part of the Preet Pattern and we may just get some more interesting leaks before all is said and done - but I'm pretty sure the Buffalo Chronicle isn't going to be the recipient of them.

12 comments:

  1. Thanks for speaking about this. As a Buffalo resident, I was alarmed to see that the Buffalo Chronicle was gettting so much attention on Twitter. Unsourced and unreliable.

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    1. I hadn't heard about the story until yesterday, I didn't realize it was getting so much play. I'm not putting much stock in it, hope others aren't either.

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  2. Sourced or not, interesting to see whether Hochul is delegated by Cuomo to open dog houses in Cheektowaga or Plattsburgh.

    Also, if true, she will have a short and "we hardly knew ye, Kathy" sort of tenure once Schneiderman, DiNapoli and Teachout all announce against her in a primary. She could barely hold onto her upstate Congressional seat for a single term before being slaughtered by a Republican.

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  3. Cuomo needs some serious jail time for his detoxification from hypersociapathy.

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  4. If it happened, maybe she'd appoint Randi to be her Lt. Governor...

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  5. As soon as you see Ricchiazzi's name anywhere on or near the article you can safely bet it's inaccurate at best. I was told last week that Buffalo Chronicle is owned and/or funded by Carl Paldadino which I am not even sure to be fact but it would add to the lack of credibility anything this guy says.

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  6. P.S. here's another piece from the BC that nobody can figure out. He predicts Phil is maneuvering union members who opposed him in the last race to step into elected office in various strategeric spots. The only catch is none of it has any relevance to reality and from what we can figure he fabricated the entire story. There is a pretty good pic of me and union firebrand Mel Holden listening to Leonie Haimson at the Karpeles Manuscript Museum though... http://buffalochronicle.com/2015/06/24/teachers-insist-that-nysuts-badly-tarnished-image-demands-a-new-public-face/

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    1. I saw that story and thought "That seems like total bullshit to me." That was another reason why I thought the Hochul story was bullshit. When stories you kinda know about are bullshit, then it's a pretty good bet that one's you don't know about may be bullshit too.

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    2. I asked a few of the people mentioned and they shrugged and laughed and said consider the source, God only knows.... Your b.s. detector is in compliance RBE.

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  7. The articles I've read off The Buffalo Chronicle do usually seem like spoon fed political spin, but the spin felt like it was coming from the Steve Pigeon camp, which is pro-Cuomo. This one is odd because it's pointed in the other direction.

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    1. Perhaps Pigeon is sending a warning to Cuomo that he's willing to tell tales if pushed by the feds/AG's office?

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  8. Ooooohh, that IS an interesting interpretation. But, on the other hand, it's not the usual Modus Operandi of cooperating witnesses to broadcast hints that they are about to flip; unless they are putting pressure on someone to save their bacon. I don't think Cuomo has the leverage to help Pigeon even if he wanted to unless he was willing to start handing out appointments to everyone in Buffalo to keep them quiet.

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