I had already planned to write a little bit about Andrew Cuomo, who has been reliably reported to be a major dickhead (via Atrios, check out how Cuomo fucked New York City by shutting down the subway yesterday). We all know how Mario’s idiot bastard son has given the republicans de facto control of the state senate, and Daily Kos has relentlessly hammered the Working Families Party for buying his promises. We have also learned plenty about Andy’s ethics when he shut down his own ethics commission the minute it started looking at Hizzoner himself.
But in the wake of Sheldon Silver’s arrest for corruption, US Attorney Preet Bharara had a warning for Albany:
[T]he charges “in our view go to the very core of what ails Albany: lack of transparency, lack of accountability and lack of principle — joined with overabundance of greed, cronyism and self-dealing. But we will keep at it.”
“As our unfinished fight against public corruption continues, you should stay tuned.”
But when pressed for more details, Bharara demurred.
“We have a number of public corruption investigations going on,” he said. “I’m not going to tell you which people we’re looking at.”
…and THAT, my friends, has made Andy Angry:
Gov . Cuomo is “freaked-out and furious” over the bombshell criminal charges dropped on Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver last week — and “obsessed with fear’’ because of the ongoing federal corruption probe.
One source described Cuomo as “doubly enraged’’ by hard-driving Manhattan US Attorney Preet Bharara’s decision to bring the five criminal corruption charges against Silver just hours after the governor delivered his State of the State address — and then, less than 24 hours after that, to indict Albany’s “three men in a room’’ culture in which Cuomo is the lead player….
And several sources described Cuomo — who along with his aides is being investigated by Bharara over the abrupt disbanding of the governor’s Moreland Act commission on public corruption — as “on edge’’ over Bharara’s ominous statement Friday that the public should “stay tuned’’ for more criminal charges to come.
“Andrew’s been working the phones day and night, staying up into the early morning hours, making hundreds of calls in one day trying to find out what the hell is going on,’’ a source close to the governor said….
“He’s freaked-out, furious, and obsessed with fear, it’s like a nightmare for him. The whole narrative he laid out for his second term has been derailed by Bharara,’’ said a source in regular contact with the governor.
Couldn’t have happened to a more deserving person. Pass the popcorn, the movie’s just getting good!
I have not led a good or clean enough life to have Andrew Cuomo have to share the same jail cell as Silver!
At the age of 57, outside of 1 year in Philly and 9 years in NC, I am a lifelong resident of NY City and Upstate NY.
And, let me tell you, Chicago political corruption has nothing on Albany.
Hell, even Byzantium might have nothing on Albany.
Come on, Brendan — a link to the NY Post? Do you really think “sources close to Cuomo” would talk to the Post?
I hate little Cuomo as much as anyone, but you can’t quote a rag like that without heavy skepticism.
yeah, but it lines up with other stories I’ve been reading too. And ya know, fuck Andrew Cuomo.
That’s not good enough. Is it possible the story is true? Yeah. Should anyone ever trust the Post. NFW.
Well, not to be Snarky McSnark, but I don’t get paid for this. In fact I wrote the post in between juggling 4 grants and 2 reports for my employer.
If my post is “not good enough” for you, I suggest you either write something better yourself, including sources that pass YOUR muster, and publish it in the diaries (where I will gladly promote it on the front page); or pay me a salary that’s more than $0.00/hour to to find sources that you find acceptable. The going rate for a freelance journalists and fact checkers is about $30-$40 per hour.
Well, that’s convincing. After all, the Post writers and editors make pretty decent money, so I’m sure we can trust the quality of their work. It’s almost worth it to have you circulate it for free.
So you write a better post, friend.
I’m just glad you wrote something.
My day SUCKED.
Nah, I do enough work for free.
yeah, me too. See comment above to diturno (who has never written a diary or even commented until I went after Cuomo)
I have no problem with snark. I do have a problem with writers who say “I’m busy and I don’t get paid for this, so it’s not a problem if I use a Murdoch rag as a source.”
My point exactly. I’m not even saying anything about his work. I’m just saying that’s a really lame argument.
I thought Silver was the lead and the ethics committee was shutdown because they got too close to him and he had dirt on Cuomo.
Not necessarily. It seems pretty clear that the Silver investigation was one of the reasons Cuomo shut down the commission, but there were almost certainly investigations touching Cuomo directly as well, like real estate developers who got a huge tax break days after they gave huge donations to Cuomo campaign. Wheels within wheels.
I can’t for the life of me imagine why a squeaky-clean public servant would be worked up about the imminent fall of a corrupt government official. That being said, Gov. Cuomo probably has ample reason to be worried about stray knives finding their way into his political back (metaphorically speaking).
Not to mention the fact that if Zephyr Teachout’s primary didn’t clear the field for Hillary, charges from the US Attorney-Southern District of New York should end any hankering Cuomo or is backers should have of a Presidential run. (You transmitted reports that he was dick.)
Corruption in Albany persists? Quelle surprise!
One need only ask just why it is that the US Attorney has paid so little attention over the past, er, century.
You know, Albany is as corrupt as anywhere, but our New York corruption is a lot more sophisticated than the kind they have in shit holes like Louisiana or Missouri.
No snark: your first paragraph is intriguing, but I don’t quite get the drift.
Dollar Bill Jefferson?
I continue to hope that Preet Bharara has a crack team plowing through the NY/NJ Port Authority corruption and that it leads to indictments against both Cuomo and Christie and all their cronies. Seeing those two suddenly run off the public stage would be as satisfying as seeing this almost forty years ago.
Well, not quite. August 9, 1974 (40.5 yrs ago) was a glorious day in the history of our country. As close to a national celebration as one could get not having been able to officially declare it a national holiday.
But at least Christie will soon be run off the public stage as I suspect he’s about to rumble, bumble and stumble out of the GOP nomination race.
As for Andy, maybe some native NYites can explain to me how he remains popular in that state and in NYC. They used to have a deep, vocal liberal bench there to call out the hacks and sell-outs.
— oops– missed a year.
As satisfying because there are two of them and Nixon was only one man.
There was only celebrating in August 1974 by those on the left. The rightwing was furious and vowed to get even (one of the things they could finally speak of in public with the impeachment of Clinton). Then there was the mushy middle that had overwhelmingly voted for Nixon in ’72. They were shell-shocked. But they got over that by 1980.
I’ve always considered Cuomo a dick, but I was amazed at a recent poll showing him to be extremely popular in the Big Apple. I can’t imagine why. Do people confuse him with his father?
http://www.quinnipiac.edu/news-and-events/quinnipiac-university-poll/new-york-state/release-detail?R
eleaseID=1755
Recent? That poll appears to be from almost 3 years ago.
Zounds! You’re right, that was the wrong poll. Here, try this one:
“FOR RELEASE: JANUARY 16, 2015. NEW YORK CITY VOTERS LIKE CUOMO MORE THAN de BLASIO …. With a much smaller racial divide, Gov. Andrew Cuomo gets a 71-23 percent approval rating in New York City, the independent Quinnipiac University Poll finds.”
http://www.quinnipiac.edu/images/polling/nyc/nyc01162015_N265Bder.pdf
Expecting MTA employees to try and commute and then work (only 60% of the system is underground) when the predicted snowfall was 3″ per hour is fucking moronic.
Did you read the article?
GOOD.
investigate his ass