Close readers of Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s habits were not surprised by Monday’s retreat on education. A clear sign that collapse was near came in a Post report over the weekend.
A poll had found that New Yorkers don’t like his proposals, with two-thirds opposing key elements and giving him his lowest approval rating yet. A Cuomo ally told The Post the governor was disappointed but wasn’t budging. “He’s serious as a heart attack about education reform,” the ally said.
Ha, those are the magic words that signal doom. Cuomo once uttered the same phrase to me, vowing he was “as serious as a heart attack” about letting the Moreland Commission clean up corruption — not long before he pulled the plug on it.
The two incidents share more than a semantic white flag. They reflect the governor’s tendency to make absolute declarations, followed by a sudden reversal. Unlike “the quiet before the storm,” he’s loudest just before a quiet surrender.
The continuing Moreland fiasco and the education collapse are also linked in another way — they show his nightmare is coming true. Nobody in Albany is afraid of Andrew Cuomo anymore.
This is no small matter, for he sees fear as central to his ability to get things done. He talks often of being a “strong governor,” believing he has an advantage if he can instill fear of his power in legislators, lobbyists and even the press. Anybody who crosses him gets both barrels, ranging from a temper tantrum to whatever lasting punishment he can deliver.
The tendency to go nuclear was best captured recently when Senate Republicans suggested his live-in partner, Sandra Lee, should be covered by ethics rules. In response, a Cuomo aide, surely with the governor’s approval, tweeted that “if Sandra Lee must disclose income, so should mistresses of state legislators.”
Was that a joke — or a threat?
Fear also let him run the state with a few lieutenants, an ideal arrangement for a man given to distrust that borders on paranoia. The approach worked for much of Cuomo’s first term, and led to key changes in controlling taxes and spending. But his energy for reform flagged and his re-election victories in last year’s primary and general election were solid but not spectacular. It certainly didn’t help that he lost his father, the venerated Mario Cuomo, on inauguration day.
Yet the problems erupting now were planted when he was riding high — and roughshod. The epidemic of corruption on his watch has robbed him of moral authority, old punching bags like Attorney General Eric Schneiderman are starting to punch back, and legislators, including fellow Democrats, are no longer folding like cheap suits.
One result is that his hope of running for the White House is kaput. In addition to being scrutinized by federal prosecutors over his Moreland role, he’s made almost as many personal enemies as did Eliot Spitzer, an irony given that Cuomo recognized that Spitzer’s arrogance left him with no friends when he needed them most.
The Cuomo way is dissected in a new biography born when he was seen as a 2016 presidential player. In “The Contender,” author Michael Shnayerson “paints the governor as a lonely, obsessive executive with a skill for manipulation and an endless appetite for vengeance,” according to a review on Capital New York.
Unfortunately, the governor’s reputation is not the only casualty of his conduct. New York students will suffer even more.
Teachers unions outworked Cuomo, running vicious ads against him and lobbying legislators to reject more charter schools and tougher teacher evaluations and tenure rules. The unions also drew a red line against an education tax credit for the second year in a row, and Cuomo seems to have dropped it again, despite promises to Cardinal Timothy Dolan and others that he would deliver.
The governor was right to push for those reforms, and generations of students and families would be better off had he succeeded. The unions and their Dem toadies should be ashamed of their demagoguery, but, as they have proven repeatedly, they are incapable of shame.
Yet there is more to leadership than being right and ruthless. More’s the pity for Andrew Cuomo, and New York, that he still hasn’t figured that out.
I spy O’s funny business vs. Israel
The story that Israel spied on the nuclear talks with Iran and shared intelligence with Congress is sensational — and weird.
Start with the fact that the Wall Street Journal’s sources are unnamed administration officials. Given the White House’s war on Israel and its determination to finish the Iran deal this month, the timing of the accusation raises doubts.
Indeed, the doubts are similar to those provoked by anonymous reports that another critic of the deal, Senate Democrat Robert Menendez of New Jersey, will face corruption charges being prepared by the Obama Justice Department.
Whatever the truth, the twin leaks are convenient black marks against the president’s strongest critics.
Hmmm.
In fairness, the Journal story does allow that Israel was not spying directly on America, but on Iran and European governments, and intercepted communications involving America. It also said Israel has other sources and that American officials said they learned of Israel’s spying because they were spying on Israel!
That adds up to a lot of shadowboxing and innuendo, leaving me confident the real story is that Obama is furious that Congress learned about the concessions he was making and that ruined his game plan. He is desperate for a deal, as even the Iranians boast, and wants to take it to the United Nations for approval, while denying America’s representatives a vote.
Keeping Congress in the dark until it was too late was essential to that scheme, and further smearing Israel now serves as a handy sideshow.
In that case, I am grateful that Israel gave Congress information it should have gotten from Obama. As for the president, he never fails to disappoint.
Clear case of Cruz control
Conventional wisdom holds that Sen. Ted Cruz doesn’t have a snowball’s chance in hell of winning the GOP presidential nomination, but I wouldn’t bet the ranch against him yet.
His announcement at Liberty University was impressive, and he was passionate and precise in a 40-minute speech without notes or TelePrompter.
A brilliant man of clear, conservative convictions, he is not muddled by the politics of calculation, which gives him an advantage in a big, wide-open field.
Grab a ‘hole’ lot more, Bill
Mayor Bill de Blasio trekked to Boston to help the Conference of Mayors lobby for more transportation funds.
Because the group wants the feds to cough up $80 billion more over six years, you have to wonder why the mayors didn’t meet in Washington, which is where the money is. Did they get lost?
Still, whatever pork he brings home, our Most Progressive Putz will surely spend every penny wisely. If we’re lucky, he’ll use some of it to fix those craterous potholes swallowing whole cars.
Just a modest proposal, mind you.