Gov. Andrew Cuomo Revising History

Yes, the Governor is trying very hard to revise history relative to the Moreland Commission that he created to investigate and deal with corruption in Albany, NY. Last week the NY Times broke a story on his office's questionable involvement in trying to guide, steer and re-route the commission in its investigative process. After the article appeared, the Governor was out of the public eye and the media's scrutiny up through this past weekend. At 11pm last night it was announced that he would be in Buffalo to make an announcement at 10 am on Monday morning. This made it difficult for NYC and Capitol reporters to cover the event and question Cuomo on the Moreland Commission. Thankfully there are good journalists in the Buffalo media market who covered the event and followed up with questions on the Times' article and the ethics investigation.

I've followed quotes from the Governor, mainly through Twitter feeds that indicate his attempts to change what he said when he first created the investigative commission. The contradictions are pretty amazing and I guess show how a politician ends up believing his own tale telling. I believe the Albany Times Union, the NY Times, the Buffalo News and others will have a good listing of these contradictions later today. In the end, we'll see if it really makes any difference. People seem to accept Cuomo's shortcomings in this area while supporting his efforts to 'get things done' relative to the NYS economy, jobs and legislation. So it goes.

What I do find interesting is the fact that this whole fiasco has given some indication of the lack of interest in Cuomo as a presidential candidate. Think about it. When you compare how the national press was all over Chris Christie for the Port Authority issues, there seems to be little interest in the Cuomo story. Frankly, the ethical and governance issues related to Moreland are much more significant than the George Washington Bridge lane closures in my opinion and yet few people are showing interest on the national level. I think that says Christie is taken more seriously than Cuomo as a potential national candidate.

If the national press does get very far into this story, the revisionist aspect of Gov. Cuomo's response will not be lost for long.