Cuomo’s Chutzpah

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With truly breathtaking chutzpah, Gov. Cuomo is accusing one of his opponents of pay-to-play politics. It’s hard to think of a better case of a pot looking to smear a kettle. Weeks before the Democratic primary, Cuomo launched an attack ad claiming that GOP nominee Marc Molinaro “took care” of a campaign donor with tax breaks, after which the donor hired Molinaro’s wife and got “lucrative contracts.”

Molinaro notes that 1) the firm’s $5,539 in donations were made over nine years; 2) his wife’s job paid all of $27,000; 3) the contracts were competitively bid.

Cuomo, by contrast, once vowed to end the culture of corruption in state government — but instead has exploited it throughout his eight years in office.

The governor devoted billions to various “economic development” projects with a rotten record of actually creating jobs but an excellent one of providing lucrative con- tracts to companies responsible for six-figure donations to his campaign fund.

Some of those execs are headed to prison over bid-rigging schemes involving those contracts, as are two decades-long Cuomo associates and the state official formerly in charge of key “development” schemes.

Cuomo claims he couldn’t possibly have known about all that corruption. This from the same micromanaging governor who appointed a Moreland Commission to investigate corruption — then shut it down as it was venturing into sensitive areas.

When Molinaro tried to call him out on corruption, Cuomo tried to get his opponent’s ad banned. When reporters question him on it, he attacks the press.

And now he’s using his war chest — fattened to $24 million-plus with pay-to-play donations — to try to bury an underfunded challenger with bogus dirt.

It’s not just Cuomo’s chutzpah that’s breathtaking but his shamelessness.