The show that will drone on
In George Orwell’s “1984,” the nations of Oceania, Eurasia and Eastasia are perpetually at war — a conflict that isn’t really meant to be won, but is required for the generation of propaganda to solidify Big Brother’s power and justify his regime’s iron grip. The war, therefore, is meant to be continuous.
The Assembly’s newborn impeachment inquiry into the alleged misdeeds of Gov. Andrew Cuomo isn’t exactly a war, but it doesn’t look like it’s going to be much of an inquiry, either. It has been chartered and structured to go on, if not forever, at least as long as it might take a battered governor to reforge his political armor and make it to the end of his third term, and perhaps even survive Houdinilike into a fourth.
The inquiry was launched after a memorable March 11 meeting of the Assembly’s Democratic majority, with Speaker Carl Heastie serving as the brake on members who were pushing for more immediate action in the aftermath of allegations reported in the Times Union that Cuomo had groped a female aide at the Executive Mansion late last year — the most serious charges made against him as of my typing this.
According to audio of the meeting obtained by Hunter Walker of Yahoo News, Heastie informed the chamber’s Democrats he decided to hand the matter to the Judiciary Committee, chaired by Long Island’s Charles Lavine, and then took questions and comments.
He was asked how long the Judiciary Committee would take to do its work. “I have no idea what the time frame is,” he said.
That’s a problem right there, especially considering that Lavine is the former chair of the Assembly’s Committee on Ethics and Guidance, which took almost 18 months to investigate, take action and go public with its findings regarding a sexual harassment charge lodged in June 2016 against then-assemblyman Steve Mclaughlin.
The committee’s work was so pokey that the sanctions it imposed on the Republican (who denied the allegations) weren’t released to the public until three weeks after he was elected to his current post as Rensselaer County executive — a resolution that worked out pretty well for Heastie, inasmuch as the Assembly would no longer be troubled by Mclaughlin’s ugly, clownish behavior. Too bad for the people of Rensselaer County, though.
Remember: That was an inquiry into a single sexual harassment charge, albeit one later complicated by the allegation that Mclaughlin had improperly blabbed about it. Cuomo faces multiple credible allegations.
Add to that the two other matters the Assembly’s impeachment inquiry has been tasked with exploring: the
Cuomo administration’s handling of nursing homes during the pandemic and — another Times Union investigation — the cover-up of broken bolts during the construction of the Gov. Mario M. Cuomo Bridge. In comparison to those two mammoth and complex issues, the sexual harassment allegations are the investigatory equivalent of a walk in the park. In the audio obtained by Yahoo News, Assemblyman John Mcdonald of Cohoes summed up the committee’s ambit as “three major buckets of s__.”
Further complicating the legislative committee’s work is the fact that these major buckets are currently being studied by competing investigations or legal actions: the sexual harassment allegations by a team assembled by state Attorney General Letitia James, and the nursing home scandal by the FBI and federal prosecutors in Brooklyn (because why in the world would federal prosecutors based in Albany think to look into corruption in state government?); the bridge matter is detailed in a whistleblower lawsuit filed in 2017 and recently resolved in state Supreme Court, though the matter remains under seal, and lawmakers have asked the federal Department of Transportation to launch a probe.
The mind reels: Each of these is enough to keep four or five legislative committees busy from now until doomsday, even if there weren’t competing probes that will complicate the Assembly’s efforts to call witnesses and demand documents.
The biggest winners here are the employees of Davis Polk & Wardwell, the law firm selected by Lavine and Heastie to handle the inquiry’s legal work and the proud new owners of the biggest honey pot of billable hours in recent legislative history. The selection of the firm came as a surprise to many Judiciary Committee, members, several of whom were discomfited to learn that, in a remarkable coincidence, its retired former head of litigation, Dennis Glazer, is married to state Chief Judge Janet Difiore, who was nominated by Cuomo to her current job as well as her former role as the chair of the state Joint Commission on Public Ethics.
As for Cuomo, he made it clear in a Wednesday conference call he won’t be answering questions pertaining to matters under the “review” of the Assembly —meaning the nursing home scandal, the bridge and the sexual harassment allegations.
Which means that, if he can stick to that policy as long as the Assembly’s impeachment inquiry proceeds, Cuomo can keep ducking embarrassing questions, and Heastie can act like he’s actually taking action.
So do not look for this probe to be fast-moving, or informative, or robust. But definitely expect it to be continuous.