Thursday night on Inside City Hall, Andrew Cuomo presented a pretty weak defense when asked about a charge made be Mark Green.
Here’s the exchange started by Dominic Carter –
“When you left HUD, Mr. Cuomo, did you receive any honorarium from companies that while you were at HUD they received HUD grants."
Cuomo: "Dominic, after I left HUD I’ve given lectures, speeches, etcetera to companies, its part of what I do. I may very well have spoken before a company that directly or indirectly received HUD funding. But so what?"
Carter: "But is that ethical?"
Cuomo: "Of course it is. So what? I’m no longer the HUD secretary. I’m gone. Once you’re gone, you’re gone. I’m not in the position to influence anything. I can’t make them a grant, I can’t help them, I can’t hurt them. I’m out of the office. And by the way there’s another administration, the Republicans are now running HUD, so obviously it has nothing to do with me whatsoever. The point is, the ethical point is, when you are there you should not be receiving income from any source you could help. That would be the conflict. That’s a legitimate point that was raised. I never did that….”
That’s pretty shocking coming from someone who wants to be Attorney General. Is Cuomo saying that receiving money after you do someone a favor is never a problem?
In other words, according to Cuomo, it would be OK for some of Jack Abramoff’s old clients pay for more golf trips for Tom DeLay now that DeLay is leaving Congress. After all, DeLay could say – “I’m no longer a Congressman. I’m gone. Once you’re gone, you’re gone. I’m not in the position to influence anything.”