PRINCE CUOMO, The DemoGOP and HYPOCRITE! A.L.A.N. Governor’s Crusade Against Corruption Comes With Too Many Asterisks By MICHAEL POWELL October 14, 2013 “The politicians in Albany won’t like it, but I work for the people, and I won’t stop fighting until we all have a government that we can trust.” — Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, in a commercial shown more than 100 times last summer. Three months ago, the governor rolled out the Moreland Commission to Investigate Public Corruption, with all of his now-familiar trumpets, drum rolls and rhetorical flourishes. His commission would be the best, the grandest ever. Anti-corruption, campaign finance, transparency and courage would be its watch words. Commission members salute him. “Governor Cuomo has made it clear that corruption in New York’s government will not be tolerated,” said Kathleen Rice, the Nassau County district attorney and a chairwoman of the commission. “Governor Cuomo is taking an aggressive and necessary step to strengthen our laws so that we can more effectively combat corruption,” said William J. Fitzpatrick, the Onondaga district attorney and another chairman. All hail and all that. Three months later, here come the asterisks. The commission will never back down.* (*Except when the governor’s aides suggest that subpoenaing the Real Estate Board of New York, which helped lobby for multimillion-dollar special tax abatements, was a rude step too far.) The commission will examine political party housekeeping accounts, those catchall bins into which corporations and the wealthy toss hundreds of thousands of more or less unaccountable dollars.* (*This investigation will scrutinize accounts belonging to the Senate Republican campaign committee and Independence Party. It will avert its eyes from the state Democratic Party committee, which represents the politicians who control two and a half of the three wings of New York government.) The commission will walk fearlessly.* (*Except it might overlook the governor’s Committee to Save New York, the fund-raising vehicle by which the state’s larger corporate, real estate and gambling barons raised $17 million to express their adoration and support for Mr. Cuomo’s efforts to cut taxes and promote casino gambling. Purely by chance, this committee shut down its operations less than two months ago, which means there is no longer an organization to subpoena. “We felt our mission was accomplished,” the committee’s director said.) And of course the governor will be unfailingly straightforward in that unfailingly straightforward manner of his. So an intrepid reporter from The Daily News traveled to Utica, N.Y., to toss questions at him the other day. Did you or anyone in your administration block those subpoenas? “No,” the governor replied. “The co-chairs make the decisions.” Did your staff, the reporter persisted, play a role in guiding them? The commission’s staff, the governor replied, is picked by the governor and the attorney general. Is that a yes? “The co-chairs make that determination,” the governor said, before he really had to get going. It called to mind a gubernatorial updating of Abbott and Costello’s “Who’s on first?” routine. The governor is profligate with commissions. He appointed two to examine tax policy (one an ideologically unruly group, and a newer one with better political manners). He selected a couple more to examine Hurricane Sandy and global warming. Members of such commissions rarely feel forgotten; the governor’s staff members are attentive. “A commission by definition is supposed to be independent,” said a commission member, who spoke on the condition of anonymity as he desires to continue living peacefully in the state. “That’s fundamental, except maybe not for this governor.” For advocates, the worry now is that the governor has housebroken the commission, and that it will present proposals that will trouble no one. A reform in which no one’s coat gets singed is not worth the trouble, they suggest. “If we’re not serious about getting rid of money and corruption in politics,” notes State Senator Liz Krueger, a Democrat, “you’ve not only flunked the question as to why you created the Moreland Commission, you’ve also increased the cynicism about how broken Albany is.” Some wonder, as well, whether Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman will recover from his acute case of political laryngitis. Like many of his peers, he tiptoes carefully around our formidable governor. He has said precious little as the reports emerge that commission staff members answer more readily to the second floor in the Capitol, the governor’s cave, than to the commission chairmen. Mr. Cuomo likes to say that New Yorkers can sleep better at night knowing that his commission is prowling the land. At the same time, his re-election apparatus is readying in December a 56th birthday bash for the governor, with music by Billy Joel. Tickets for the high-influence rollers will retail at $50,000.* (*If you have to ask if you can afford it, stay home. The governor has your back.)
Posted on: Tue, 15 Oct 2013 05:35:13 +0000
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