The press coverage of the campaign for State Attorney General has so far concerned either mudslinging, or who is ahead in the horse race, rather than the substance; but, it’s hard to blame the press, because so little in the way of substance has been raised by either of the major candidates (or, for that matter, any of the others). Perhaps this is because neither one of the major candidates really wants the job.
Mark Green thinks he should be US Senator, would like to be Mayor, and now understands that, like Alan Hevesi, his future glory lies in the past, and it’s time to settle for one of those elected positions to which New Yorkers like to give life tenure. If he serves as long as Louie Lefkowitz or Arthur Levitt, he can maximize his pension while becoming a beloved alter kocker and having a state office building named for him which will eventually be turned into luxury condos.
Andrew Cuomo thinks he should be President, would like to be Governor, but now understand that he will have to wait, and in the meantime needs to keep his name in the papers in articles on topics other than who he or his ex-wife is now sleeping with (I’m reminded that when Andrew ran for Governor, important pols were asking him how he’d deal with the fact his primary opponent was the “Great Black Hope”, and he’d answer that he was married to a Kennedy and therefore was automatically afforded hero status in the black community. One Brooklyn pol of reckless candor just laughed and said that if sleeping with a Kennedy made one a hero among blacks, then half the women in Tribeca and Capitol Hill so qualified).
So which of these guys can better do the job they don’t want to have?
Green worked for Ralph Nader, but in that distant point in time when this was not embarrassing to admit. Cuomo’s folks have apparently tried to use the Nader connections against Green, but Green actually tried to talk Nader out of running for President (and used their relationship in an attempt to leverage him). And seriously, does anyone really believe that Green will ever express the same opinions on Israel as Nader (even if he shared them), and how would he do so as AG anyway? While working for Nader, Green apparently compiled a solid record of muckraking, which he carried through to his positions as Consumer Affairs Commissioner and Public Advocate. He’s clearly been the gold standard in each of these positions, although that means he’s to be compared to the likes of Bess Meyerson and Bruce Ratner in the former, and Betsy Gotbaum in the latter. Arguably, this all translates into relevant experience for an AG; though Green seems more the sharpshooter than the Police Chief or DA.
Cuomo was a quite credible HUD Secretary, especially in the area of homelessness; however, he seems to have used the New York Office mostly as a farm team for political operatives like Charles King (let no good deed go unpunished) and Bill DeBlasio. In his first commercial, Cuomo chose to highlight HUD litigation against the Ku Klux Klan. It’s certainly comforting that he found some way to emphasize the legal angle, but while I certainly don’t disagree with taking such action (although I generally favor attaching Klansmen to their own crosses with a staple gun and dousing them with gasoline just before the match is set), it's not exactly something which meets the definition of courageous. How about citing something that pissed off a large group of people, or someone important?
Throughout the campaign, Mark's theme song has been "It's not that easy being Green”. Doubtless, he bears much of the blame for this. This is the man who claims he’s not arrogant, but once told a group of labor types who supported his primary opponent that “I don't need you to win, but I do need you to govern", and as a result, got to do neither. More importantly, his abysmal campaign inflicted great damage upon the body politic from which we have yet to recover. As I stated at the time, "You could probably take the white people outside of Park Slope and Brooklyn Heights [and Manhattan] who voted for Green both in the runoff and the general and fit them into a moderate sized high school gymnasium…At this point in the politics of the city, white liberals have to be regarded as one of those minor sort of groups you have to pay a little attention to, but not that much-like Indo-Caribbeans who are Sunni Muslims. Oh God, the white liberals are having a dinner! We have to buy a ticket and give them a $2,000 member item. We've become irrelevant" (perhaps we can now qualify for protection under the Endangered Species Act).
However, Green's self-righteous arrogance does create hope that he’ll actually use the AG’s office as an oppositional institution within the executive branch, and one which will foster accountability rather than mere obstruction.
Contrast this to Cuomo, whose base comes from two different but overlapping sources. The first group are those who back him because he’s become the personification of “Anyone But Green” (fair enough, since Green’s become the personification of “Anyone but Cuomo”). The emblematic statement of this group comes from Bronx boss Jose Rivera, "The sad truth” he said to Green, “is, you run as a Democrat in name, but you once again do the dirty work for the Republicans." Of course, Rivera is projecting, since the same quote could be applied to him, Roberto Ramirez, Freddy Ferrer and the rest of the 2001 Bronx Democrats, joined by their buddy, Al Sharpton (who in common with them, worked hard to keep Republican Guy Velella in the State Senate until Manhattan prosecutors did the work to remove him from office that the Bronx Dems should have done at the ballot box years before).
The second group comprising Cuomo’s base are those committed to quidding Cuomo’s quo (or is it quoing Cuomo’s quid?) by paying him off for dropping out of the Governor’s race against Carl McCall four years before. Why Bill DeBlasio and Charlie Rangel’s private deal should be presented to voters as a fait acompli, whereby those who question it are accused of party disloyalty, by a crowd for whom party loyalty is mostly acknowledged in the breach, is one of this year’s enduring mysteries. It is one thing for crybabies like Charlie King to complain about being denied ballot access by a group from whom they couldn’t manage any serious support. It is quite another to watch the ruling elite of the State Democratic Party strong-arm Mark Green out of the 25% of the State Committee votes he got the old fashioned way, vote by vote, by humbling himself and swallowing his pride like poison; all for naught. It must have brought back the days for Andrew when he did the same thing to his old family friend Joe Hynes on behalf of Oliver Koppell, although the exact angle of insertion may have differed. What happened to Green was almost poignant, in contrast to the crocodile teared buffoonery of watching a bunch of pols, doubtless at the command of Shelly Silver, barking out condemnations of Green as if they were trained seals, and calling upon him to drop out of the race, for something having to do with one of his kid’s nannies (although I do admire the pols’ ability to keep a straight face while doing so).
The irony is that all this chicanery has been facilitated largely by a crowd that probably has no intention of delivering any serious support to Cuomo in the general election. Take Eliot Spitzer; Spitzer could have leveraged almost anything out of the Independence Party in exchange for his agreeing to take its endorsement and thereby enabling it to get the 50,000 votes it needs to survive another four years. But, Spitzer agreed to take the line despite the fact that the IP is supporting Republican Jeannine Pirro for AG. By doing so Spitzer gave the Pirro campaign a double dose of steroids boosted even further by being joined in this endeavor by Hillary Clinton and Alan Hevesi. This is another victory for the Albany bi-partisan iron triangle, which long ago tired of the Cuomo family, for all the wrong reasons and a few of the right ones.
I suppose those who delivered the State Committee designation to Cuomo, while forcing everyone else to petition (eliminating the most promising candidate from the race entirely), should be commended for keeping a promise, but their true feeling are probably summed up by Carl McCall who was heard on New York One saying he hopes a Republican wins one of the statewide offices this year. Can anyone doubt which one he meant?
And, it’s hard to blame any of those Democrats who intend to sit on their hands and let Cuomo fend for himself (although I certainly do intend to blame them). If Mark Green is an arrogant bastard, Mario Cuomo was an arrogant thug with a silver tongue; and Andrew Cuomo is his father without the eloquence; a hitman’s hitman. As governor, Mario Cuomo spent 12 years talking about shining cities on a hill while not producing a hill of beans. He spent 12 years complaining about having his initiatives blocked time and again by the Republican Senate, while never investing blood or treasure to help the Democrats take control; in fact, Mario was notorious for going into the districts of Republican marginals at campaign time and singing their praises. When it came to the cause of liberalism, Mario usually talked the talk, but Mario rarely, if ever, walked the walk. In the end, Mario left the treasury of the State Democratic Party, which he operated as his personal piggy bank, with a hole almost exactly the size of the surplus in his own personal campaign account. And through it all, Andrew Cuomo was the one and only person whispering in his father’s ear, the one and only person implementing his father’s instructions. Bill Clinton got it right in that bimbo’s sex tape; Mario Cuomo was not a mobster, he just behaved like one. And if Mario was the Godfather, Andrew was Michael, Sonny, Tom O’Hagen, Clemenza and Tessio all rolled into one; except of course, for a key difference: Don Corleone had a sense of loyalty and was occasionally capable of helping others in need.
Mark Green’s record is at least marginally more relevant to the job than Andrew’s. Andrew’s record of “public service” to the state of New York does not deserve to be rewarded. And, voting for Mark Green is the only opportunity voters in a statewide primary will have to effectively send a message that it is time to put an end to politics as usual as practiced by the Albany bi-partisan iron triangle. Voting for Mark Green may be the equivalent of cold showers and root canal, but no one ever said that growing up would be fun.
Gatemouth's Homepage was updated on 8/30/06; for more fun and laughter, visit:
http://www.r8ny.com/blog/gatemouth/gatemouth_en_la_casa.html