By Eric W. Schoen
Didn’t you think that this crap was all over. A lot of sexual escapades went on in Albany for years. There were secrets but if you were ‘in the know’ you knew who was sleeping with who. What was the saying, ‘what happens in Albany stays in Albany.’ People sadly advanced in their careers because of who they spent the night with.
What’s wrong with these politicians? Most of our politicos are honest people. As I once said to a State Assemblywoman, Albany is a calling. It’s not exciting like Washington, DC where you have monuments, the Supreme Court, Smithsonian Museums, Kennedy Center and plenty to do when you are not legislating. What do you do at night in Albany, go to your hotel or go out for dinner or go out drinking? Then State Senator George Latimer posted on Facebook from Denny’s. I was jealous. We have no Denny’s close by. I love their $2 for 2 pancakes deal!
A friend told me he was going to run for State Assemblyman. He by far had the qualifications for the job. But I laughed. I said for weeks during the year you would leave your beautiful family and shiver in snowy Albany. The 2 1/2 hour drive in bad weather, particularly in January through budget passage in April and many other times during the course of the year. It’s nice to be powerful and do something to make the community a better place. But in Albany?
Now the train ride right from Yonkers Station to Albany is a beautiful ride along the Hudson River. Sometimes as beautiful as those European train rides many of us have been on. But you can’t be a Legislator in the New York City area and rely on the trains. They don’t always run on time, and you need your car in Albany so when business is done you can jump in it and head on home to your loved ones. Maybe the State Senate or Assembly is a good job for a single man or woman without familial responsibilities? But for the average Joe it’s a calling.
Now that I have talked about the the good people in Albany who do their job and do it well, let’s talk about Andrew Cuomo. Other than his dad, you couldn’t find a more qualified guy for the job. As a young kid he got his feet wet working alongside his father in dad’s climb up the political ladder to Governor. He always was looking for the day that his dad would be President of these great United States or on the Supreme Court. Mario Cuomo had a great mind, but never advanced beyond Governor.
We went through sexual shenanigans in Albany over the years. Some lost their jobs because of it. We had an Assemblyman like Vito Lopez who sexually abused his staff. Lopez resigned in May 2013 after a legislative ethics panel censured him. On June 11, 2013, Lopez was fined $330,000 accused of groping, intimidating and manipulating young female staffers in a 2012 scandal.
We had Aides to Legislators in Albany who were involved in sexual scandals. Their bosses quietly tried to cover things up but when things got too hot they let the disgraced go. But somehow, somewhere everybody in Albany always lands on their feet no matter how much trouble.
Then we had Eliot Spitzer, the Sheriff of Wall Street who resigned indisgrace after his sexual shenanigans were revealed. David Patterson was his Lieutenant Governor, but he too was caught dining in New Jersey with someone other than his legal partner. Patterson is now married to his former radio talk show partners ex-wife.
We have been told Albany had strengthened the rules. There would be no more sexual escapades coming from our State Capitol. Or Washington, DC for that matter. But then we elected a President, Donald Trump was his name. His exploits were very public and some how he became Leader of these great United States. I guess with Trump in office many elected and appointed officials said hey, if he could do what he did, brag about it and still become President, what’s to stop me.
When the Cuomo sexual scandal broke over the last week, at first people said, ‘oh no, not our Andrew.’ The man won an Emmy Award for his daily press briefings. Yes, something fishy was going on with all the nursing home deaths. But this Covid-19 thing was all new. Attorney General Tish James, the new Sheriff in Albany told us Cuomo was not telling us the truth. Close to double the number of people died when they were sent back from hospitals to nursing homes with Covid-19 infecting many others.
Cuomo might (sadly) have weathered the storm if his top Aide didn’t say the administration had gotten ‘frozen’ and was worried about the detectives from Washington and their investigations into the Nursing Home Scandal. Many folks were having second thoughts about our dear Andrew.
Then came the call to the legislator threatening him for statements he had made and saying Andrew would be ending his political career. The public was shocked. Emmy Award winning, nice guy Andrew? Albany insiders were sadly not. They were use to this behavior.
Then came the accusations of those within his administration and outside of it of behavior unbecoming a Governor. Former top staffer Lindsey Boylan. Uncomfortable experiences with Cuomo dated to 2016. The governor had a “crush” on her, and in a separate incident, Cuomo suggestively alluded to a cigar box he had received from President Bill Clinton. This experience sadly reminds us of the Monica Lewinsky affair. In October 2017, the governor suggested they play strip poker. And in 2018, she said, he gave her an unwanted kiss on the lips.
The second on-the-record accuser, former aide, Charlotte Bennett, said that, in June, Cuomo asked her a number of questions about her personal life, including whether she had been intimate with older men. She said he also talked about being open to a relationship with a woman in her 20s. Bennett is 25. Cuomo suggested Sunday that he might have made jokes in poor taste, saying, “Sometimes I think I am being playful and make jokes that I think are funny.”
Sorry pal, you are not funny.
As we go to press accuser #3 three came forward. Anna Ruch had never met Cuomo when he placed his hand on her bare lower back at a September 2019 wedding and then, after she removed it, placed his hands on her cheeks and asked if he could kiss her. Ruch’s friend took pictures. In response, Cuomo’s office referred to previous comments in which he also alluded to actions that “have been misinterpreted as an unwanted flirtation.” Enough is enough Andrew.
His appointment of an attorney with connections to a formal legal partner to investigate these matters. A joke. His dragging the good name of NYS Chief Judge Janet DiFiore, a woman I have a lot of respect for into his mess. Disgraceful. Andrew knows the law. He has to make a request for an investigation to the Attorney General. He finally did that on Sunday.
The law is the law whether your last name is Cuomo or Schoen. Albany. Here we go again!
FINAL NOTE: The Trumps got Covid-19 vaccinations. The Bidens did too. Did you?
Reach Eric Schoen at thistooisyonkers@aol.com. Follow him on Twitter @ericyonkers. Listen to Eric Schoen and Dan Murphy on the Westchester Rising Radio Show Thursday’s from 10-11 a.m. On WVOX 1460 AM, go to WVOX.com and click the arrow to listen to the live stream or download the WVOX app from the App Store free of charge.
