Perdido Street School:
More Details On The "Lawyering Up" In The Cuomo Administration
Perdido Street School Week
Andrew Cuomo As Richard Nixon
The Nixon parallels for Andrew Cuomo were present well before the Moreland mess - both are known as famously controlling politicians with a penchant for ruling both friends and enemies through fear and intimidation, both had their "time in the wilderness" (Nixon from 1962-1968 after his famous "You won't have Dick Nixon to kick around anymore..." concession speech when he lost
More Details On The "Lawyering Up" In The Cuomo Administration
Ken Lovett, Daily News journalist who has reported so much of the Moreland mess before anybody else (including the NY Times expose, much of which Lovett reported in the spring), has some interesting details on how members of the Cuomo administration are getting legal representation: ALBANY - In an unusual move, Gov. Cuomo’s $35 million campaign account, not taxpayers, will pay for a lawyer to repr
Why Andrew Cuomo Has No Friends
Alex Seitz-Wald explaining why everybody hates Cuomo at MSNBC.comThe most obvious culprit of Cuomo’s troubles is his aggressive style. “Everyone here is afraid of him,” said one Democratic strategist, explaining why he (like several others who spoke to msnbc) asked that his name not be used. What looked to voters like ruthlessly pragmatic problem-solving in better times now takes on the darker cas
Cuomo Has His Own Bridge Scandal
Hey, what do you know - another link between Christie and Cuomo.They both have a bridge scandal: ALBANY—State investigators are looking into the controversial Tappan Zee Bridge loan and whether a board controlled by Governor Andrew Cuomo violated state laws when it approved the money.The state Authorities Budget Office, an independent body, is examining allegations the Environmental Facilities Cor
Pearson Owns New York
The gravy train for Pearson continues in John King's and Andy Cuomo's New York:Becoming a teacher in New York state is getting more expensive.The price of basic teacher certification exams has more than doubled this year and it's taking a toll, educators said....Essentially, the regimen of tests and assessments needed for a certification degree has gone from $317 to $652 this year.That's on top of
The "Fuck Cuomo" Factor
For three and a half years now, Andrew Cuomo has governed the state through fear.Jimmy Vielkind at Capital NY writes that "fear factor" is gone:What the episode has done, people involved in government and longtime observers say, is make it OK, for the first time since Cuomo came to office, to defy him.Where once other officials wouldn't publicly oppose the famously controlling governor,
JUL 31
Daily News Reports That Andrew Cuomo Has "Lawyered Up"
The Moreland disclosures just don't stop these days - here's another big one, courtesy of Ken Lovett at the Daily News: ALBANY - Gov. Cuomo has lawyered up as the scandal over the handling of his anti-corruption commission has grown, the Daily News has learned. Cuomo hired prominent white collar criminal defense lawyer Elkan Abramowitz in May to represent the governor’s office, sources told The Ne
Everyone Hates Andrew
That's the takeaway from Maggie Haberman's Politico story on Andrew Cuomo:As of mid-Thursday afternoon, no Democrats in the state had come forward with statements backing the governor, and party operatives were loath to discuss his case publicly. Many pols in his party have existed in fear of Cuomo since he won a race for state attorney general in 2006, outlived Eliot Spitzer politically and becam
The Sounds Of Silence In Albany
A comment at the NY Times: Consider the deafening silence from our state legislators over this affair verses the fire storm in New Jersey when Gov. Christie was involved. When the Moreland group was decommissioned, a great sigh of relief was audible through the halls of the Legislative Office Building. Cuomo is being called on his behavior and Democrats have to wake up to the fact that they have a
It's Always The Cover-Up
Blake Zeff on Twitter:Reminder: It's always the cover-up http://t.co/P4D1Dn3zKw— Blake Zeff (@blakezeff) July 31, 2014Stephen Gillers in The Nation writes in an article entitled "Andrew Cuomo's Watergate?" that up until now, he didn't see much for US Attorney Preet Bharara to get Cuomo on, but after Cuomo's shenanigans this week stage-managing his defense, he thinks Cuomo gave Preet an o
An Ominous Warning For Governor Cuomo
Mike Allen on The Morning Joe Show:This is turning into a potentially defining episode for Governor Cuomo, who is of course up for re-election in November and is expected to easily be re-elected. But through all this bad press throughout the ethics commission, this bombshell story last week about how the governor's office had been said to have interfered, the trillion dollar question had been, wha
Cuomo Tries To Turn A Corner, Preet Says Not So Fast
Last night around 9:30 PM, Reuters posed the following story:Exclusive: Cuomo intervened in BNP deal to get $1 billion more for NY state fund(Reuters) - Only days before U.S. authorities reached a landmark $8.97 billion settlement with BNP Paribas over the bank’s dealings with countries subject to U.S. sanctions, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo intervened to ensure the state government got a much b
JUL 30
US Attorney Warns Governor Cuomo Over Witness Tampering, Obstruction Of Justice Charges
The battle between US Attorney Preet Bharara and Governor Andrew Cuomo over the Moreland mess just got ratcheted up some more:In an escalation of the confrontation between the United States attorney in Manhattan, Preet Bharara, and Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo over the governor’s cancellation of his own anticorruption commission, Mr. Bharara has threatened to investigate the Cuomo administration for possi
Cuomo Getting Beaten Up By National Press
Laura Nahmias on Cuomo's press strategy around the Moreland mess:The way the Moreland story took hold nationally following the bombshell Times piece may be of particular concern to Cuomo because the bad press fills something of a vacuum—while the governor is unusually energetic in his attempts to manage local press coverage, he has rarely engaged the national media since taking office, citing a de
Here's Comes The "Health Care Savings" From City Workers
From the NY Times:When Mayor Bill de Blasio announced his first labor agreements with New York City unions this spring, he was sharply criticized for granting long-awaited wage increases in exchange for promises of unspecified though sizable savings on health care expenses.Now, some of the specifics are coming into focus: City officials and union leaders say they hope to push municipal workers to
JUL 29
Common Core Proponents Mount - Yet Again - Another Public Relations Offensive
Politico's Stephanie Simon writes that Common Core Federal Standards proponents are putting together a new P.R. offensive:Supporters of the Common Core academic standards have spent big this past year to persuade wavering state legislators to stick with the new guidelines for math and language arts instruction. Given the firestorm of opposition that took them by surprise, they consider it a victor
Christine Quinn Looks For Commissionership In Second Cuomo Term
You just can't keep a corrupt politician down:Astute political watchers noticed when former mayoral candidate Christine Quinn attended a recent women’s press conference at City Hall in support of Gov. Cuomo’s candidate for Lt. Governor, Kathy Hochul. Quinn has been keeping a low profile since her primary loss to Bill de Blasio, who was able to carry the gay vote even though Quinn is an out and pro
JUL 28
Moreland Mess: The Parade Of The Browbeaten
Michael Powell on Twitter:The Parade of the Browbeaten. Various NYS Democrats issue Press Releases Hailing Moreland Commission and Himself.— Michael Powell (@powellnyt) July 28, 2014And indeed, that's what we got today from former Moreland Commission members as well - a coordinated PR effort, starting with a long statement released by Onondaga County District Attorney William Fitzpatrick:Onondaga
Cuomo Says Moreland Commission Was "A Phenomenal Success"
Matthew Hamilton at Capitol Confidential:Throughout the back-and-forth with Buffalo and limited Albany media, Cuomo stuck to his guns and didn’t waver from his stance that the commission was a success and that there wasn’t interference from his office; rather, conversations and dialogue were just that.“The Moreland Commission was a phenomenal success,” Cuomo said. “It generated all sorts of intere
Cuomo Says He Disappeared To Finish His Book
Here's Governor Cuomo explaining why he has been MIA for seven straight days, five of those coming after the NY Times/Moreland expose:Cuomo: "I'm in the middle of writing a book."— Nick Reisman (@NickReisman) July 28, 2014 Cuomo says "it's really, really difficult" to write a book.— Nick Reisman (@NickReisman) July 28, 2014Here's the video: There you have it.
NY Post: Cuomo "Paralyzed" And "Humiliated" By Moreland Mess
Fred Dicker in his Monday column:Gov. Cuomo’s reputation has been severely damaged and his chances of running for president destroyed by revelations that he interfered with the Moreland Commission’s efforts to probe political corruption, influential Democrats have told The Post.The Democrats, who called the disclosures in last week’s New York Times “a political game changer” and a “Cuomo nightmare
JUL 27
Andrew Cuomo Held Hostage: Day Seven
It's been seven days since Governor Andrew M. Cuomo has been seen in in public, five days since the NY Times published its expose on Cuomo's Moreland Commission machinations:… And on the 7th day, he once again had no public events: Sunday marks a week since @NYGovCuomo poked head up. An administration record?— Capitol Confidential (@TUCapCon) July 27, 2014 For all out there wondering when the gove
Campbell Brown Uses A Paid Organizer Of StudentsFirstNY As The Face Of Her Tenure/Seniority Lawsuit
From the Daily News: Seven families will file suit Monday to end teacher tenure in the fiercest attack yet on job protections enjoyed by New York State educators. The families, including five from some of the most impoverished communities in the city, claim their children were underserved in school due to incompetent teachers who only kept their jobs because of tenure rules that violate kids’ con
JUL 26
Cuomo's Independence Party Shenanigans
Two NY Post reports that make you wonder what deals Governor Cuomo made for the Independence Party ballot line.First:ALBANY — Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino refused to give a top Independence Party leader a patronage job in exchange for the party’s ballot line, he claimed Friday. Gov. Cuomo’s anti-corruption panel had conducted a preliminary probe of accusations that Westchester Indepen
Steve Kornacki: Cuomo Re-Election Is Immaterial, What Matters Is What Happens Legally
Steve Kornacki at MSNBC talking to Blake Zeff, Salon Politics Editor, and Peter Henning, Wayne State Law Professor and former federal prosecutor, about the Cuomo/Moreland scandal:With a federal prosecutor involved now in looking around, it almost becomes immaterial whether he survives and by what margin this fall politically because the big question here is whether something is going to happen leg
Cuomo Meddled With His Other Commissions And Panels Too
Michael Grunwald reports in TIME Magazine that the Moreland Commission tackling public corruption is not the first time Andrew Cuomo has meddled in one of his panels:Before New York Governor Andrew Cuomo set up a supposedly independent commission to investigate political corruption in Albany—a commission he later shut down after it began poking around his own operations, a commission that is now c