For somebody covering New York politics as long as I have, you would think I cherish the feeding frenzy when political blood hits the water.
But here is my weakness as a journalist. I often shy away from kicking a person when they are down.
And so it goes for Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who is currently suffering the miserable political death of a thousand cuts.
Eleven women came forward and accused Cuomo of sexual harassment, gender discrimination and having a toxic workplace. Then State Attorney General Letitia ‘Tish’ James did her “Independent investigation” indicting the proverbial ham sandwich in the court of public opinion.
Cuomo’s undoing is as much political theater as it is his groping of women. This is not to say he doesn’t deserve his just deserts. He is a creep, and probably did and said many things to his accusers that he shouldn’t have done. And judging from the few times I’ve covered him, he’s arrogant, too. The kind of person who finds few friends when they are down.
With the emerging left scaring the bejesus out of New York’s mainstream Dems, you couldn’t get a better sacrificial lamb. The great moderate political wizard of oz, who when the curtain is pulled back, reveals a bumbling old creep of a man.
Politics has always been as much about tragedy as triumph. So it makes perfect sense that every elected official from President Biden on down gets to whack the piñata. The unions. The media. Everybody gets to hold the knife and inflict stab wounds.
“Et tu [You too], Brutus,” says Julius Caesar in the Shakespeare tragedy as his most trusted political ally and friend, Brutus delivers the final fatal stab into the Roman dictator’s heart.
But perhaps a better read in light of current affairs is The Master and Margarita, Mikhail Bulgakov’s dark satire novel about a visit by the devil to Moscow during the reign of Stalin when leftist Soviet Union was in its most repressive age and officially atheistic.
It’s a good gut check for these times we live in.
