Metro

No such thing as ‘halfway’ ethical, Andy

Unhappy with the results of a biography years ago, volatile basketball coach Bobby Knight alter nately called the author a pimp and a whore. To which the author, John Feinstein, memorably responded: “I wish he would make up his mind so I’d know how to dress.”

That exchange comes to mind as Gov. Cuomo takes turns coddling and bashing the Legislature. I wish Cuomo would make up his mind so voters would know how to address the governor.

Is he the Great Reformer who will sweep out all the stables? Or is he Mr. Half-a-Loaf, a man who is ready to live with a corrupt Albany as long as it makes some modest reforms?

The doubts stem from Democrat Cuomo’s mixed messages. He’s back on the attack, demanding a property-tax cap and an ethics law that would force lawmakers to reveal more details on their outside income, including the names of law clients.

“Right now, the people don’t trust their government, for good reason,” Cuomo said recently. Yet in late March, after the Legislature gave him most of the budget trims he wanted, he stood with leaders and said the Empire State had “the best legislative body in the nation.”

Even allowing for gubernatorial giddiness over the budget achievement, the ridiculous remark highlights Cuomo’s dance around the heart of Albany corruption.

He once likened the capital to Tammany Hall, a fair comparison because both feature what George Washington Plunkitt famously called “honest graft and dishonest graft.”

The dishonest graft grabs the headlines as one lawmaker after another is convicted and marched off to the Big House. The cases involve clear corruption — taking a bribe, demanding a kickback or outright theft of public money.

The honest graft is more pervasive and more ruinous because the “everybody does it” attitude erodes public confidence and tempts the weak. It creates a transactional culture that blurs the lines between public service and private benefit. It turns part-time lawmakers into full-time puppets for special interests, where the quid pro quo is obvious but hard to prove.

That’s the problem Cuomo now faces. The outrageous refusal by Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos to disclose the amount and sources of their outside income perfectly captures the bipartisan rot of honest graft.

Both men, and many of their colleagues, are tied to law firms whose clients have business with, and sometimes sue, state and local governments. It’s disgraceful, an absolute conflict of interest — and generally legal under lax rules and laws.

So Silver, a Democrat, and Skelos, a Republican, are free to spend public money on people and organizations who are directly or indirectly paying them. It has made lawmakers rich, and taxpayers get screwed on both ends of the deal — their money is wasted on corrupt expenditures, and their elected representatives are working against them.

Cuomo gets it, but he blinked when he had a chance to deliver change. By dropping his demand for caps in medical malpractice cases, the governor accepted the slimy underbelly of a corrupt system that enriches members of both parties and fuels the tort bar, which in turn finances Albany campaigns.

He has a second chance now with the ethics bill, but he shouldn’t fool himself into compromising again, no matter what deal lawmakers offer him in exchange for backing off. He needs to make it absolutely clear that Silver, Skelos and the others can either work for the public or they can work for their clients — but they can’t do both.

This time, it’s not just their reputations on the line. It’s Cuomo’s, too.

NEWT’S IN A ‘FIX’

It is often said about Newt Gingrich that he is his own worst enemy. True, but making a fool of himself is only part of the damage he did with his latest outburst. The human wrecking ball damaged hopes for real fixes to the Medicare disaster.

The former House speaker rolled out his presidential quest in odd fashion — by accusing fellow Republicans of “right-wing social engineering” and having a “radical” plan to change Medicare. After adding his support for the individual mandate at the heart of ObamaCare, he quickly tried to backtrack.

Too late. Opportunistic Dems seized on his attack to blast individual Republicans as headlines talked about a “rift” in the GOP ranks. In effect, Gingrich gave Dems their newest talking point and another excuse to block entitlement reform.

That would be fine if he actually had a plan or conviction of his own. He doesn’t. Gingrich is so starved for attention and smitten with the sound of his own voice that he merely talks as long as anybody will listen.

Hopefully, he will soon have reason to stop.


A bunch of ‘bare’ asses

Alarmed by public librar ies’ claims that the First Amendment requires them to let adults watch Internet por nography, two City Council members are proposing exactly the wrong solution. They want to make it a mis demeanor to watch XXX within 100 feet of children. Here’s a better idea: Require libraries to block all porn sites on their computers. If the civil-liberties crowd wants to fight it and stand up for pervs in court, surely some civic-minded New York lawyers will stand up for public decency.


‘Power’ failure

Who says there’s never any good news? The gods definitely are showing a sense of justice in bringing down leading members of the Too Big To Fail jet set.

Even as Dominique Strauss-Kahn gets to cool his “hot rabbit” heels in Rikers, Arnold Schwarzenegger is forced to fess up to fathering a child with the help.

Strauss-Kahn, the French Socialist with caviar taste and gutter habits, is said to be whining about his treatment by police in that “Do you know who I am” tone of put-upon celebrities. Yes, New York knows exactly who he is and it’s why gutsy state Judge Melissa Jackson denied bail. Think of it as égalité, American-style.

Meanwhile, Schwarzenegger trots out the tired gallantry of the guilty, saying in a statement that “I ask that the media respect my wife and children through this extremely difficult time.”

No problem. Just as soon as the ex-gov himself learns to respect his wife and children, the media will be happy to follow.

White House fun house

The White House Web site has become a fun house mirror of distortion. In an introduction to President Obama’s recent immigration speech, the site says, “In a debate where all sides are often portrayed as caricatures, the president seeks to break the stalemate by showing that it is a debate about real people and our economic future.”

That’s a strange choice of words, since the immigration speech was noteworthy only because Obama delivered it in full caricature mode, accusing Republicans of wanting “alligators in the moat” along the border.

“They’ll never be satisfied,” he said. “And I understand that. That’s politics.”

On that part, he is correct. Politics is definitely something he understands.