Northeast Texans no doubt recall some of the pithy wisdom issued by the late son of Mount Vernon, “Dandy Don” Meredith, who used to chirp on “Monday Night Football” when a game got out of hand that it was time “turn out the lights, the party’s over.”
Well, I feel fairly confident in asserting that New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a political heir and son of a prominent East Coast dynasty, is likely finished as a politician. The party well might be over for the embattled chief executive of the Empire State.
The state attorney general has issued a blistering report that said Cuomo violated federal and state law by sexually harassing state employees. The behavior included, according to AG Letitia James -- a fellow Democrat -- unwelcome touching and kissing. Several women filed complaints against the governor.
The attorney general vowed to get to the bottom of it and today she asserted that Gov. Cuomo did what the women have alleged.
No surprise here, but Cuomo says he isn’t going to quit. He denies all the allegations that the attorney general has substantiated. He says he is going to fight on, that he will stay on the job to which he was elected.
Why does any of this matter to me, your friendly blogger way down yonder in Texas -- a good distance from Albany, NY.? Because the New York governor has been a national figure since before he was elected to his current office. He was born the son of Mario Cuomo, the fabulous orator and former New York governor. He served in President Clinton's Cabinet as housing secretary.
During the current pandemic, Cuomo emerged as an eloquent spokesman for the way his state was handling the crisis. He served as a fascinating counterweight to the occasionally incoherent ramblings of the president of the United States, the guy who called his medical team “idiots” when they said things with which he disagreed.
Now we have this. The rest of it, all the good stuff? We might as well flush it away. See ya later, governor.
John Kanelis, former editorial page editor for the Amarillo Globe-News and the Beaumont Enterprise, also is a former blogger for Panhandle PBS in Amarillo. He is retired but is still writing. Kanelis can be contacted via Twitter @jkanelis, on Facebook or his blog, www.highplainsblogger.com. Kanelis’s blog for KETR, “Piece of Mind,” presents his views and does not necessarily reflect the opinion of KETR, its staff or its members.
Kanelis lives in Princeton with his wife, Kathy.
