Sullen but not mutinous. That is the New York state of mind in this election year.
The Siena poll finding that an incredible two-thirds of New Yorkers assume state legislators are in the job only for themselves and their friends is a dismal reflection of recent history. And it’s no surprise that voters are not surprised when the pols get busted for corruption.
The only shocker is that the public seems prepared to accept the status quo as the best the Empire State can do. Big mistake.
Apathy benefits incumbents, including the worst ones, and the poll is more proof that this year’s contests are not generating any passion. If voter enthusiasm had to produce actual electricity, we’d be headed for a summer blackout.
The poll shows Gov. Cuomo holding a massive, 37-point lead over Republican Rob Astorino, 60 to 23 percent. The lopsided margin is in line with other surveys.
Yet Astorino, in an interview yesterday, insists that the race is far from over, and claims to see an opening because he is making Albany ethics, or the lack of them, a top issue. That puts him in sync with voters, although he clearly hasn’t convinced them he can clean the stables; that, in turn, has made fund-raising difficult.
He is trying to jump-start his campaign with withering attacks on Cuomo, linking the Democratic governor to the crime wave the public sees.
“This governor is the most corrupt, and the corruption is destroying this state,” Astorino told me. “Only in New York can the anti-corruption commission itself be corrupted, but that’s what happened.”
He added: “Who is the governor protecting?”
The basis of his charge is that Preet Bharara, the crusading Manhattan federal prosecutor, served a subpoena last week on an aide to the former head of the defunct Moreland Commission. The subpoena reportedly calls for the aide to testify before a criminal grand jury next week.
The move follows unusually critical comments Bharara made after Cuomo shut down the panel in March. The prosecutor wondered whether the governor traded away evidence of federal crimes in exchange for lawmakers agreeing to modest political reforms. Previous subpoenas demanded the panel’s records, as well as relevant ones from the state Senate and Assembly.
As I wrote, Cuomo has been too timid about fighting corruption, and made a mistake in disbanding the panel before it completed its work. Yet he did say repeatedly he would keep it going only until the Legislature acted, and, unfortunately, he kept that promise. But based on what we know, it is a big leap for Astorino to say the governor’s action itself was corrupt.
Still, official misconduct is surely fair game in this race. The steady indictments and convictions of public officials — 26 forced from office since 2000 — have a corrosive impact on public trust.
Moreover, corruption in Albany is not incidental to the state’s problems, ranging from super-high taxing and spending to a smothering welter of regulations, fines and fees. The endless horse-trading and transactional deals that dominate every piece of legislation undercuts even routine operations. Merit rarely sees the sun.
Astorino, the Westchester County executive, says the result is that taxpayers are saddled with a stealth “corruption tax.” His 10-point reform plan features term limits of eight years for elected officials and legislators, an independent panel to investigate public complaints of misconduct, stronger transparency requirements, and automatic loss of pension for officials convicted of using their offices to commit crimes.
He would put new restrictions on the tens of millions of dollars directed to nonprofits, a perennial source of wrongdoing, since many are connected to legislators who lobby for the funds. And in a sign of how lax rules are now, he would require receipts before lawmakers get reimbursed for food, lodging and travel. The existing honor system is easy picking for the felony-minded.
These are basic, good-government ideas and Cuomo would be wise to offer his own package. Voters also deserve at least two head-to-head debates in the fall. If they get all that and still doze through Election Day, heaven help New York.
Fools who see no evil
With images of death and destruction in Ukraine competing with images of death and destruction in Gaza, Americans probably are struggling to keep their wars straight.
Not to worry. You don’t even need a score card to tell the bad guys from the good guys.
Russia and Hamas are the evil twins, Israel and Ukraine are democracies. Everything else is bloody detail, though you’d never know it from the whimpering of American and European officials.
Their premature calls for a cease-fire in Gaza and the reluctance to slap tough sanctions on Russia capture the fatal weakness of western civilization. With the darkest forces on the rise, the free world offers only faint-hearted resistance.
Despite the clear Russian role in shooting down the Malaysian airliner, Europe and Washington proceed like mewling bureaucrats. They plan meetings that will lead to more meetings; any actions will be too little, too late to change Vladimir Putin’s murderous ways.
Similarly, the sole focus on Palestinian casualties is misplaced. Counting every corpse as a civilian is folly in a land where there is no regular army, only terrorists who fire from schools, mosques and hospitals.
Besides, Hamas aims rockets at Israeli cities, hoping to kill civilians. Their incompetence doesn’t make them any less evil.
Yet the moral and geopolitical dimensions of these conflicts escape President Obama and his Old Europe peers. Their fecklessness reflects a confusion that is both simple and profound.
Simple in that Russia and Hamas are enemies of life and liberty, the basis of western civilization, and they must be checked if not defeated. Profound in that, where principle demands support for Ukraine and Israel, western leaders offer a mushy uncertainty.
The stakes couldn’t be higher, but instead of a Churchill, we are led by a gaggle of Chamberlains.
Just a light smack for ‘heroin’ principal
A Brooklyn school principal named Sadie Silver was arrested and charged with trying to smuggle heroin into an upstate prison she was visiting. Her boyfriend also was arrested, and they had with them a 10-year-old girl.
Nor did he inhale
Maybe Bill Clinton just gets a kick out of lying. How else to explain the ridiculous whopper
he laid on an interviewer?
After telling CNN that wifey wants “time” to think about a 2016 presidential campaign, he claimed Hillary “hasn’t asked me yet” for any advice.
Right. And he never had sex with that woman.
Flagging spirits
About those white surrender flags on the Brooklyn Bridge — perhaps Mayor de Blasio put them there before fleeing to Italy.
Are we sure he’s coming back?