The Bare Minimum
The news today was simultaneously shocking and expected all at the same time. Governor Andrew Cuomo announced his resignation. It will officially take effect in a couple of weeks. His statement came with the usual caveats. He was doing it in the best interests of the state. He gave what seemed like a non-specific apology that admitted nothing. You know the drill.
For those that haven’t been paying attention, the writing was on the wall when an official investigation revealed that he had sexually harassed a number of women on his staff over the years. Add to that the scandal over a cover up on deaths in retirement homes and there was really no other direction that this could have gone for Cuomo.
Except, we all know that isn’t true. That’s what makes handicapping this thing so very hard. On the one hand, a resignation is the bare minimum that could have been expected, so praising anyone for the bare minimum seems ghastly. Yet, so many of our current politicians can’t be bothered to do the bare minimum. I suppose it’s the absence of shame.
We begin with the former president and the over twenty women that accused him of sexual assault, sexual harassment, and whatever else falls under that umbrella. We continue with Matt Gaetz and the persistent charges that he recruited underage women to travel and have sex with him. There is Jim Jordan and his role in the sexual abuse scandal back when he was a coach.
Then there are the numerous politicians that continue to kill their constituents. Cuomo is definitely responsible for his own decisions. Still, what’s the difference between that and Greg Abbott and Ron DeSantis? The difference is that one of them is at least doing the bare minimum to own his shame.
We have seen a shift in American politics. The party of personal responsibility has become the Democrats. Al Franken resigned when he was ambushed by a series of charges. Now, Cuomo has resigned. The Republican party seems incapable of feeling shame. They double down on shame. They project that shame to others. They do everything but accept their own shame.
This creates a complex series of emotions. It’s hard to feel sorry for anyone that has been outed for bad behavior. It’s the kind of behavior that would get any of us fired a lot sooner. In some cases, it would land us in jail. Yet, it’s difficult to suppress the feelings for empathy for a group of people that take responsibility for things that others refuse to do for themselves. It’s hard to know what to do with these feelings. I guess I’m open to suggestions.
The governors of Texas and Florida join the league with trumpf in that their actions (and inactions) have led to people getting needlessly sick and dying, and continue doing it on purpose. That’s called premeditated. They’re in a league of their own.
1Can’t sugarcoat Cuomo. He’s a politician that looks out for #1 first, abused his power with women, and covered up negative stories. He did some good things but his legacy will and should be the bad things. He may be a criminal as part of that legacy unless he comes clean.
Gaetz and Jim Jordan are political scum bags 1st that are also lying about their sexual harassment. In the case of gaetz, he needs to be held criminally irresponsible. Soon I hope.
Let’s not forget about another presidential wanna-be, SD Gov. Kristi Noem. Pretty on the outside but ugly on the inside. She has a shocking Covid track record all her own. She reminds me of Sarah Palin.
2JMO, I believe that Cuomo should have had his day in court with his accusers present. He, like Al Franken were forced to resign before they could defend themselves in court. Other than he-said-she said, was there physical evidence of his crimes? Do I think Cuomo was totally innocent? No. But the incident smelled tainted.
My questions: Why didn’t his adult femal accusers go to HR to report his actions right away? Why did did one of them wait three years before she said anything?
3The “personal responsibility” that Republicans talked about never had anything to do with morality. It was always a buzz phrase for “if you’re having trouble and need any help, that’s your responsibility, not mine”.
Same thing with “family values”, which meant “my family is valuable, yours is not”.
4The Cuomo machine had developed a system of harrassment brass denial and intimidation to silence these women much like most of the vultures in power e.g. Harvey Weinstein, etc.
5@Papa #3 –
When I was in my 30’s, I was being harassed by a client. I DID go to HR and their response was, “You don’t want us to lose our biggest client, do you?”
THIS is why it takes women years to come forward – IF they come forward AT ALL.
Further, this is not “he said / she said.” The Attorney General of New York conducted a thorough investigation and found things.
Open and closed in my opinion.
6I’m guessing most who grew up in an Italian family mid last century would recognize some of this guy. That uncle whose hugs lasted too long? The older second cousin with the roving eye? Or any woman who worked in a non-traditional field, as I did (an engineer in the late 60s). As someone said, times changed (for the better) and Cuomo didn’t.
7On the Republican side let’s not forget Brett Kavanaugh and all the evidence ignored by the FBI. Unless something pretty damning comes out, we’re stuck with him until he dies.
8@ Papa #3 – I can assure you that HR is not always there to protect the women – often, it acts to protect the harassers. I experienced that myself. The employer – none other than the Houston main newspaper. Women – and some good men – banded together to make sure no one was left alone with a harasser, if at all possible.
9Cheryl @ 8,
You wrote, “Women – and some good men – banded together to make sure no one was left alone with a harasser, if at all possible.”
That makes me wonder if the women who worked for Cuomo ever had other employees around to make sure they weren’t left alone with him.
10What Cuomo and Abbott and DeSantis (and Noem, etc.) have in common is that none of them were ever taught anything. For lack of knowledge all they can do is improvise, and for lack of an ethical compass their improvisations are more or less vile. And as they have improvised their way into positions of authority, which ought to be impossible and which is the real problem, “more” or “less” make a practical difference.
11Guys like Cuomo have an Emperor Complex. They can dismiss out of hand anyone trying to stick with a woman in need of protection, whether that protection is necessary in an office or in public. HR has traditionally been a sorry recourse for protecting working women. Also, a lot of Police Departments haven’t improved over the decades despite a screaming need for them to do so when it comes to assisting women who come to them for protection in these instances. Unless you turn up bloody, black and blue, with the harassers skin under your fingernails, you ain’t got a case and even then you might still be hung out to dry. Sad, sorry state of things, isn’t it.
12The GOP has not since 1980, at the latest, been actually the party of personal responsibility.
They have been the party of using the words “personal responsibility” to blame victims, externalize costs, excuse racism, and to destroy effective governance.
13When Republicans say “personal responsibility”, it always refers to others, never to themselves.
It is a way of denying that they have any moral responsibility for the welfare of any other person.
14HR is there to protect the company, not any employees. Sure, if it could lead to a big law$uit they will step in – but only to save the company money.
Universities have a similar relationship with Title IX. For the past 15 years I have not passed my alleged training for it. What sticks in my craw is the question “what steps should you follow in case a student reports a sexual assault”. Their steps start with “submit a written report to the Dean of Students”. **My** steps start with “stop the assault, and make sure the student is safe and has the support he or she needs”. And if the student requests confidentiality, I don’t make a written report – otherwise you’ll quickly find that few students will report it.
Fortunately I’ve had the support of women Deans in refusing to parrot the obviously wrong “training”. Too many of them know what real (as opposed to Title IX training) sexual assault is like and agree with me.
[My late-stage “steps to take” involve using a baseball bat to clarify that abuse and harassment is wrong. However, I’ve avoided mentioning that to anyone in the University hierarchy. And only had to use that approach once.]
15Cuomo is such a terrible scion of the family tree. His father, Mario, represented the best in Democratic principles throughout his life and, had he not been so tightly tied to New York State, would have made a brilliant Presidential candidate and a much-loved two-term President.
The son, Andrew, illustrates the flaw of a “meritocracy.” Sent to a private school in Ireland, he never was exposed to the raw America that his father was, never had to deal with public school students and their parents, but simply slid into a world of “movers” and “shakers” who were as calculating as he was about maintaining their own perquisites. He wound up handing the Albany legislature, with its Democratic majority, over to the Republicans for his entire time.
16Papa@3
17Stinks of Franken.
The Ideologues strike again.
Yes the lines have been redrawn,
but no one knows where.
If it’s illegal, sue.
If he’s Italian, tell his mom.
If women are just like men…
Andrew Cuomo’s father was famously labelled “Hamlet on the Hudson,” highlighting both his oratorical skills AND his indecision (“to be or not to be”) about a run for national office.
Andrew Cuomo may well become Richard III…
“on the Colorado Shakespeare Festival’s stage. In “Richard III” … the title character will do anything to put himself in a position of power and control, including coerce women into marriage, imprison their children and murder anyone who gets in his way.
But the women around him unite and stand against his tyranny. “The women in ‘Richard III‘ are the first characters in the play to speak truth to power when Richard claims the throne,” says Director Wendy Franz.”
I’m looking forward to hearing Cuomo is wandering around in a fog, bemoaning he’s killed the wrong Richmonds (Rich Mens?) and calling (in vain) for a new horse.
18I don’t know all the details here but what I’ve seen looks awfully suspicious.
While all this has been going on about Andrew Cuomo, OF COURSE the Republicans begin attacking Chris. Somehow, Andrew’s actions are Chris’ fault.
I’ve heard Republicans blame Chris for not covering the issue on his TV news show. Never mind the fact that it would be completely unethical to do so.
Then, when that accusation didn’t take, they began claiming that Chris has known what Andrew has been doing all along and “advised him” wrongly.
It smacks of Trump’s firing of Eugene [nee Yevgeny] Vindman after Alexander testified against him.
19Cuomo was considered corrupt by many NYers including Dems. They’ve wanted him gone for quite some time.
Mario Cuomo was beloved by many.
20