Nothing like a sex scandal to liven up a dull pandemic
Perhaps you’re wondering what the hell is going on with Andrew Cuomo.
Of course you are. You’ve been in dull pandemic lockdown for more than a year. And now, here’s a drama involving politics, ethics, sex and remorse featuring one of the biggest political names. In which citizens are challenged to decide whether, say, kissing a female subordinate on the mouth after a private meeting could count as a “customary way of greeting.”
Can I hear you say “Nah”?
Cuomo was the hero of an earlier stage of the pandemic — the truth-telling, Trump-challenging star who won an Emmy for his daily coronavirus briefings. Remember when you deliberately tuned in to watch the New York governor show you a bunch of charts? We will think of this in retrospect as the era when people were buying the Andrew Cuomo Celebrity Prayer Candle on Amazon.
But wow, how fast things changed. It turns out that the stellar accomplishments Cuomo was pointing to every day were, um, fudged. Somewhat. The question was whether a nursing home patient who is hospitalized and dies from COVID19 counts as a nursing home fatality. Obviously, if you’re the patient’s family, that doesn’t matter a heck of a lot. But if you’re a governor trying to demonstrate how well you oversee the nursing homes, it’s a big deal.
Meanwhile, New York has a long record of this kind of political sex crisis, and part of the problem is the state has had a pathetic record of putting women in high office. Maybe this will help change that. If it does, credit goes first to the women who came forward to tell their stories, knowing the governor had control of the party in which they were trying to make their careers.
“Ultimately what will matter is — will they get punished for speaking out,” said Debbie Walsh of the Center for American Women and Politics.
Charlotte Bennett, a young former aide, told The New York Times that when she was alone in an office with Cuomo, he started asking questions about her personal life and volunteered that he was open to relationships with women in their 20s.
Lindsey Boylan, who is running for Manhattan borough president, recently reported that once, as she was leaving Cuomo’s office when she was his aide, “he stepped in front of me and kissed me on the lips. I was in shock, but I kept walking.”
Anna Ruch, who worked in Democratic politics, met the governor at a wedding, exchanged pleasantries and then felt his hand on her lower back. Ruch removed said hand. Cuomo was in a sensitive situation. How do you think he resolved it?
A) Saying, “Oh, sorry
— I was reaching for a cookie.”
B) Sighing and muttering, “God, I’ve got to stop doing this stuff.”
C) Placing his hands on her cheeks, calling her “aggressive” and asking rather loudly if he could give her a kiss.
Yeah, I know you know it’s C. There’s a photo of the moment, and if Cuomo ever tries to run for office again, I guarantee you that voters will be seeing the stunned look on Ruch’s face on his opponents’ billboards.
On Wednesday, Cuomo held a news conference in which he confessed only to having “made others feel in ways I never intended.” Doesn’t that sound a little too close to an innocent mistake? In a perfect world, he might have added: “You know, it’s a tough time right now, and part of it for me is realizing how I can really be a jerk with women.”
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