Andrew Cuomo took to the airwaves yesterday, unleashing a barrage of new campaign commercials in which he decried political corruption, unveiled a plan for ethics reform and called on New Yorkers to “take back our government — together.”
Too bad the gubernatorial frontrunner’s ads came just hours after he’d publicly hailed the ethically challenged Rep. Charles Rangel onstage at the congressman’s gala birthday bash.
“He carried the banner for people long forgotten,” Cuomo told 800 supporters who paid up to $5,000 apiece to raise money for Rangel’s re-election campaign . . . and his legal bills.
Needless to say, the attorney general made no mention of the fact that Rangel is about to face a House trial on 13 alleged ethics violations — most, first uncovered by The Post.
But how does he expect anyone to take seriously the “20-point plan to clean up Albany” that he’s touting in his new ads — when he serves as the guest speaker and toastmaster for the latest symbol of congressional sleaze?
Indeed, while Cuomo may portray himself as the Great Reformer, fact is, he can’t even bring himself to fully repudiate the morally bankrupt Working Families Party, whose endorsement he still hasn’t ruled out accepting.
And now this.
We’re not at all surprised, of course, that people like Sens. Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand showed up to praise Rangel. Political expediency is their middle name — and their election bids this year are shaping up to be cakewalks, so there’s no real risk for them.
But compare them with, say, Rangel’s colleagues in New York’s House delegation — fewer than half of whom showed their faces at Charlie’s gala.
Anyway, Andrew Cuomo is supposed to be different — or, at least, he professes to be.
He’s the one who claims he’s set a higher standard for himself — but now refuses to live up to it.
He’s the one who’s vowed to clean up New York’s “disgraceful” and “dysfunctional” government — yet publicly aligns himself with an entrenched pol charged with 13 serious ethics violations.
What’s the message there?
The Rangel party was a real test of Cuomo’s seriousness as a corruption-fighter.
Alas, he failed.