Cuomo Resigns
Well, I was wrong. A week ago I posted an essay about Andrew Cuomo, the Governor of New York, under fire by the New York Attorney General’s report about his sexual harassment of women. My essay, titled New York, New Yorkconcluded that Andrew Cuomo would not resign from office, at least not soon.
He quit today.
He did it in typical New York fashion. After his personal attorney (a woman) went point by point through the report, raising questions and trying to discredit its conclusions, the Governor came out to speak. The first half of his speech was both an apology to those he harassed, and an explanation why he didn’t believe it was all harassment.
Then it turned, and he began the process of explaining how he was unwilling to “waste” the taxpayer’s money on continuing investigation and “litigation”. He resigned from office, effective in two weeks.
Politics
Politically Cuomo was boxed in. It was clear that the New York Assembly would in fact impeach and convict, remove him from office and ban him from running in the future. There were no Democrats in New York left standing for the ten-year Governor. Not that there was any love lost by Democrats for Cuomo even before the report. The Governor was a tough and ugly competitor in the ugliest politics in the nation, New York.
Impeachment and conviction would bar Cuomo from office for life. Now he is trying to box the Assembly in. If they proceed with impeachment, then they are “wasting the taxpayers’ money”. What privately looked like a “hit job”, where the Attorney General of the state served as judge, jury and executioner; would become a public campaign of vengeance against the disgraced Cuomo. At least, that’s how Governor Cuomo would characterize it.
Reality
Back in the 1980’s, when I was a young teacher, a colleague was accused of sexual contact with a minor decade’s before. I believed he was innocent and thought he should fight for his reputation. Back then, schools made “deals” with teachers like that. He could resign quietly, giving up his teaching license and career. Or he could have a public fight, face ridicule, and perhaps still lose his teaching career and possibly end up in jail. He resigned.
At the time I thought that was a confession of guilt.
Looking back, he probably was guilty. But he also recognized that there was no way out; even if innocent, he couldn’t win. The mere public accusation itself was enough to end his career. Resignation let him go on with a life, even though it cost him his livelihood.
Andrew Cuomo, Governor of New York and potential candidate for President of the United States, resigned from office yesterday. Like my friend, he probably is guilty, at least for some of the accusations. And he will take resignation and disgrace, rather than risk impeachment and permanent ban. He still faces litigation in the Courts, mostly civil but perhaps some criminal as well.
The List
There is a long list of men who thought the power of their office gave them “extra-privileges” over their subordinates. Bill Clinton is the most obvious, but with the “Me-Too” movement many more have been removed and disgraced. Cuomo said in his speech, the rules have changed. But the rules really haven’t changed, what changed is privilege.
Powerful office or notoriety used to grant “privilege” to ignore the normal rules of sexual conduct. There are stories of Babe Ruth, the famous baseball player of the 1920’s, running by reporters on the train naked as he chased women down the aisles. But it was “OK” and never reported – he was the greatest baseball player in history. In more modern times, we can go back to President Kennedy to recognize how high office somehow made it “OK” for him to ignore the normal rules of behavior.
Me Too
That began to change in 1988, when Senator Gary Hart, running for President, challenged reporters to violate his “privacy” and expose his extra-marital affair. He was shocked when they did. The rules were changing. His campaign for President was over.
But it took the power and courage of the “Me-Too” movement, of women willing to risk the notoriety that Monica Lewinsky faced, to make it possible for the women harassed by Andrew Cuomo to come forward. And while the Governor in his speech claimed that “the rules changed”, it wasn’t the rules that changed. It was the “privilege” that was taken away. And the loss of that “privilege” left Cuomo naked to his enemies.
As the saying goes, it’s time for Andrew Cuomo to “go home and write his book”. Oh wait, he already did that, on the taxpayers’ dime last year while he was Governor.
