basquebromance
Diamond Member
- Nov 26, 2015
- 109,396
- 27,002
- 2,220
- Banned
- #1
Cuomo can be irritating, confounding, and egotistical. He can also be engaging, intense, and charismatic. He deliberately stands apart from the leftward tilt of his party, but his record of bills signed into law on many core progressive issues is unmatched by any other Democrat, in D.C. or the states, with the possible exception of Jerry Brown. He wins in landslides, but most politicians in New York and beyond can’t stand him.
He doesn’t fit easily into the Democratic Party and has, at least for now, taken himself out of the two-year-long battle over its identity. Is there a place in national politics for a man who has spent a career lighting bridges on fire and obsessing over power plays in Albany that don’t matter at all outside New York? Is there a place for a person who gets tagged as a moderate?
He handily defeated Cynthia Nixon, a leftist, lesbian television actress, last fall. Cuomo won more votes, as he and his staff eagerly point out and then point out again, than anyone else in the history of New York. He will note that anyone else in this case includes both Franklin D. Roosevelt and Mario Cuomo, his father and role model and constant reference point.
When Mario would show up at his son’s campaign events, Andrew remembers telling the crowd, “You know, my father believes that nobody looks at the first name on the ballot when they walk into the booth. So they think they just voted for Cuomo. He thinks they were voting for him. So he really believes he won.” The crowd would laugh, Andrew says. “And it was a vindication of him. That’s a very sweet thing that a son can also do for a father.”
people hate him. Especially liberals. So much. In their bones, and in their souls, and in their Twitter feeds. Why? Everything, they say: He’s a sellout. A moderate. Maybe even a closet Republican. He maneuvered to support that breakaway group of Democrats in the state Senate so that he wouldn’t get boxed in to a more liberal agenda that he didn’t want (which Cuomo denied in words while acting in ways that helped them directly and indirectly).
look how he accomplished gay marriage:
"Starting with gay marriage, Cuomo’s string of big progressive accomplishments have all left a trail of enemies in the Democratic Party. Democrats had been talking about passing a gay-marriage bill for years. But they couldn’t muster the votes when they last controlled both houses of the legislature, in 2009–10. When Cuomo first took office as governor, in 2011, the state Senate had flipped Republican, thanks in part to the breakaway caucus of moderate Democrats who threw their lot in with the GOP. The so-called Independent Democratic Conference wasn’t voted out of power until the midterms last fall, finally returning Senate control to the Democrats.
The newly elected Cuomo gathered allies and advocates shortly after assuming office and told them he was going to take control of the process. The horse-trading and arm-twisting began—starting with Danny O’Donnell, an openly gay Democratic assemblyman from Manhattan who’d been the lead sponsor of the bill for a decade. Cuomo wanted O’Donnell to give over the management of the bill to his team. O’Donnell resisted and told Cuomo’s team members they didn’t know what they were doing.
Now Cuomo was invested, and he needed the win. One morning, the assemblyman remembers getting a phone call from the governor’s then chief of staff. Here’s the way it’s going to work, O’Donnell says he was told. Either he could give up and let Cuomo pass the bill, or he could make things difficult. If he made things difficult, he should think about the consequences. At some point soon, Cuomo’s chief of staff said, he himself wouldn’t be in government anymore, and he’d be making a lot of money in the private sector, but he’d wake up every day thinking of how to make O’Donnell’s life miserable.
“You’ll never work again,” O’Donnell remembers being told. “I’ll make it my mission in life to destroy you.”
O’Donnell gave in. A few months later, the bill passed, with four Republicans voting for it in the Senate. At the time, New York was the biggest state, and one of the first, to legalize gay marriage. It got done. O’Donnell stood behind Cuomo at the bill signing. But he says he still hasn’t forgiven him for what happened.
“It’s only about getting him credit,” O’Donnell tells me. “He only cares about credit.” O’Donnell married his husband in 2012. He didn’t endorse Cuomo for reelection in 2014 or 2018. But the Human Rights Campaign, an LGBTQ advocacy group, endorsed Cuomo both times—and featured him as a speaker at the group’s annual New York gala this month."
Andrew Cuomo’s Case for 2020—No, Really
"
He doesn’t fit easily into the Democratic Party and has, at least for now, taken himself out of the two-year-long battle over its identity. Is there a place in national politics for a man who has spent a career lighting bridges on fire and obsessing over power plays in Albany that don’t matter at all outside New York? Is there a place for a person who gets tagged as a moderate?
He handily defeated Cynthia Nixon, a leftist, lesbian television actress, last fall. Cuomo won more votes, as he and his staff eagerly point out and then point out again, than anyone else in the history of New York. He will note that anyone else in this case includes both Franklin D. Roosevelt and Mario Cuomo, his father and role model and constant reference point.
When Mario would show up at his son’s campaign events, Andrew remembers telling the crowd, “You know, my father believes that nobody looks at the first name on the ballot when they walk into the booth. So they think they just voted for Cuomo. He thinks they were voting for him. So he really believes he won.” The crowd would laugh, Andrew says. “And it was a vindication of him. That’s a very sweet thing that a son can also do for a father.”
people hate him. Especially liberals. So much. In their bones, and in their souls, and in their Twitter feeds. Why? Everything, they say: He’s a sellout. A moderate. Maybe even a closet Republican. He maneuvered to support that breakaway group of Democrats in the state Senate so that he wouldn’t get boxed in to a more liberal agenda that he didn’t want (which Cuomo denied in words while acting in ways that helped them directly and indirectly).
look how he accomplished gay marriage:
"Starting with gay marriage, Cuomo’s string of big progressive accomplishments have all left a trail of enemies in the Democratic Party. Democrats had been talking about passing a gay-marriage bill for years. But they couldn’t muster the votes when they last controlled both houses of the legislature, in 2009–10. When Cuomo first took office as governor, in 2011, the state Senate had flipped Republican, thanks in part to the breakaway caucus of moderate Democrats who threw their lot in with the GOP. The so-called Independent Democratic Conference wasn’t voted out of power until the midterms last fall, finally returning Senate control to the Democrats.
The newly elected Cuomo gathered allies and advocates shortly after assuming office and told them he was going to take control of the process. The horse-trading and arm-twisting began—starting with Danny O’Donnell, an openly gay Democratic assemblyman from Manhattan who’d been the lead sponsor of the bill for a decade. Cuomo wanted O’Donnell to give over the management of the bill to his team. O’Donnell resisted and told Cuomo’s team members they didn’t know what they were doing.
Now Cuomo was invested, and he needed the win. One morning, the assemblyman remembers getting a phone call from the governor’s then chief of staff. Here’s the way it’s going to work, O’Donnell says he was told. Either he could give up and let Cuomo pass the bill, or he could make things difficult. If he made things difficult, he should think about the consequences. At some point soon, Cuomo’s chief of staff said, he himself wouldn’t be in government anymore, and he’d be making a lot of money in the private sector, but he’d wake up every day thinking of how to make O’Donnell’s life miserable.
“You’ll never work again,” O’Donnell remembers being told. “I’ll make it my mission in life to destroy you.”
O’Donnell gave in. A few months later, the bill passed, with four Republicans voting for it in the Senate. At the time, New York was the biggest state, and one of the first, to legalize gay marriage. It got done. O’Donnell stood behind Cuomo at the bill signing. But he says he still hasn’t forgiven him for what happened.
“It’s only about getting him credit,” O’Donnell tells me. “He only cares about credit.” O’Donnell married his husband in 2012. He didn’t endorse Cuomo for reelection in 2014 or 2018. But the Human Rights Campaign, an LGBTQ advocacy group, endorsed Cuomo both times—and featured him as a speaker at the group’s annual New York gala this month."
Andrew Cuomo’s Case for 2020—No, Really
"
