Opinion

Gov. Cuomo’s Moreland mess: He did it for us

Rest easy, New York: In his handling of the Moreland Commission, which was investigating Albany’s corruption, Andrew Cuomo was only doing what’s best for us taxpayers.

After five days in hiding, the governor emerged Monday to deploy some Clintonesque grammar to explain that it all depends what you mean by the words “interfered with.” Turns out in Cuomo’s office it means offering “advice.”

Ditto for “independence.” Those who speak fluent Albany should know that when Cuomo said the Moreland Commission would be “totally independent,” he didn’t mean he would leave it alone. “It’s called conversation and advice,” he says.

And the reason he pulled the plug? To save the beleaguered taxpayers of New York their hard-earned dollars. “I don’t believe the state needs another expensive prosecutor’s office,” explained Cuomo.

Forget that long New York Times exposé. If New Yorkers could only understand the language the way Cuomo does, they would immediately recognize Moreland was, as he put it, a “phenomenal success.”

All in all, this was an uncharacteristically weak performance by the governor, who was as glib and feisty as always but wholly lacking in persuasive arguments.

Our guess is that his explanations will only fuel late-night comics like Jon Stewart. Last week on The Daily Show, Stewart lampooned Cuomo’s definition of Moreland’s independence: “You know that’s f— ridiculous, right?”

As for the governor’s claims that everyone’s making a mountain out of a Moreland, the day after Cuomo offered his newest explanations we learned the Democratic State Committee had unleashed a massive ad blitz timed to run just before and after the Times published its story.

Sure looks like someone was trying to distract public attention.

We’re eager to see what Preet Bharara, the US attorney now leading a federal investigation of Moreland, makes of Cuomo’s creative English.