If Democrats Circle the Wagons around Andrew Cuomo, They’re Just Asking for Worse Behavior

The only person who really benefits when a political party rallies around and defends a scandal-ridden jerk is the scandal-ridden jerk. There is no evidence to prove that scandal-ridden jerks are somehow more effective or better leaders than those who manage to never get their hands caught in the cookie jar.

Each time some politician gets caught in some scandal, he examines the politicians who survived previous scandals and concludes he can get away with it, too.

And pretty often, he’s right. Ted Kennedy, Representatives John Murtha and Gerry Studds, Bill Clinton, Larry Craig, David Vitter, Gary Condit, Charlie Rangel, Bob Menendez. Oh, and our most recent president had no shortage of scandals and calls for his resignation. I’m sure you can think of others.

I write this from the infamous state where our governor admitted he either wore blackface or a Klan hood, the lieutenant governor was credibly accused of rape, and the attorney general admitted to wearing blackface, and all of them remain in office. In Governor Ralph Northam’s case, Virginia Democrats perfected the art of the thoroughly ineffective rebuke. They called upon Northam to resign. Northam refused to resign. And the vast majority of Virginia Democrats effectively responded, “Well, okay then,” and moved on.

At least seven Democratic senators decided that they regretted calling for former senator Al Franken’s resignation. Some Democrats still believe that they voluntarily gave up something valuable in Franken, just because he squeezed some women’s butts without permission.

But Franken was replaced by Tina Smith, who voted pretty much the same way her predecessor did. Franken voted with the Trump administration 23.6 percent of the time; if that seems high, remember that Congress passes some broadly popular legislation. Smith voted with Trump’s position 25 percent of the time. And Smith won election comfortably in 2018 for the remainder of Franken’s term and in 2020 for her own full term. She’ll probably keep that seat until she chooses to retire. Minnesota Democrats gave up nothing by pushing Franken out the door, and they gained a senator who doesn’t have a habit of inappropriate behavior. (Okay, at least as far as we know.) By ditching Franken, Democrats spared themselves the humiliation of insisting that Franken’s butt-grabbing was different and somehow more morally acceptable than a Republican official’s butt-grabbing.

None of these guys are irreplaceable. None of these guys are so valuable to their state or the country that they must be shielded from the consequences of their bad actions. Leadership in government is a privilege, not a right. Cuomo is the third straight New York governor to be accused of sexual impropriety, and this isn’t counting former New York state attorney general Eric Schneiderman, who did not face criminal charges — despite four women claiming he hit or choked them. Once charges were dropped Schneiderman issued a statement declaring that he “accepted full responsibility for my conduct in my relationships with my accusers, and for the impact it had on them.” He went on to teach meditation. (No, I am not making this up.)

New York Democrats, how has circling the wagons working out for you so far? Are you pleased with the results of the men who choose to lead you? Is it possible that the reflexive instinct to “circle the wagons” around unethical creeps in office is sending the signal to elected officials that this behavior is okay?

If New York Democrats got together and either impeached and removed Cuomo or created so much overwhelming pressure he felt he had no other option to resign, then lieutenant governor Kathy Hochul would take over. From a policy perspective, Hochul isn’t likely to be all that different from Cuomo. But at least it would send a signal to all other elected officials in New York politics that they aren’t indestructible and that they will face consequences for bad actions like harassment, unprofessional rage tantrums and bullying, and oh yes, that giant pile of dead senior citizens who were killed by the state’s nursing-home policies.