Tuesday, August 10, 2021

Its a matter or priorities and everyone has different priorities.

It is interesting to see people's priorities.

Governor of New York, Andrew Cuomo, has just resigned in response to the NY Attorney General report finding him to have a pattern of inappropriate sexual behavior with women on his staff and in government.

Yes, entirely bad.  But I would have put at least one, if not two other incidents ahead and they never had significant traction in the media or in the political sphere.  

The first occurred in his administration when he commissioned the Moreland Commission to tackle corruption in state government.  He closed it down owing to its impact on key Cuomo friends and allies.  From Wikipedia.

In July 2014, it was reported that the Moreland Commission, a committee established by Cuomo to root out corruption in politics, was directed away from investigations that could be politically damaging.  Cuomo later disbanded the commission.  Federal prosecutors in Manhattan launched an inquiry into Cuomo's dealings with the anti-corruption panel and concluded that "after a thorough investigation," there was "insufficient evidence to prove a federal crime." 

In September 2016, Joseph Percoco, a close friend and former top aide to Cuomo, was indicted as part of a bribery investigation into the Buffalo Billion.  He had worked for Cuomo in both Washington and Albany and had managed his 2010 and 2014 gubernatorial campaigns and has been described as "the governor's enforcer and a member of his inner circle".  Cuomo had previously referred to him as a brother, and as Mario Cuomo's "third son".  Todd Howe, a lobbyist and former Cuomo aide, was also indicted, along with several developers who were major donors to Cuomo and other state politicians.  Cuomo was not accused of wrongdoing.

The second was his decision, during the pandemic, to sequester those infected with Covid-19 in long term care facilities with the elderly and infirm.  It was criticized as a bad health decision at the time and subsequently did cause an exorbitant death rate among the elderly compared to other states.  Further, Cuomo authorized a cover-up to hide the number of deaths as a result of this policy.

There is a small pass to be given to Cuomo as among the first large state governor's to address the still novel Covid-19 pandemic.  On the other hand, the evidence and expert opinion against co-locating the elderly and infirm with those who were Covid-19 infected was so strong and reasonable Cuomo can't get a full pass, or even much of a pass at all.  

Corruption, Covid-19, Sexual harassment - all wrong, but I would have put them in that order rather than the media ranking of Sexual harassment, Covid-19, Corruption.


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