XPost: ny.politics, sac.politics, alt.fan.rush-limbaugh
XPost: alt.politics.republicans, talk.politics.guns

Andrew Cuomo has had quite a year. A few short months ago, he was heralded
as the noblest, boldest and sexiest governor in American history, credited
with steering us through the darkest days of the pandemic.

Last week, our gubernatorial Emmy winner and million-dollar author was
seen sitting morosely poolside, meditating on the landscaping, wondering
where everything went wrong. Cuomo’s triumph over COVID-19 — once the
subject of universal acclaim — was in fact a documented disaster, with at
least 15,000 nursing home deaths accountable to his policy of insisting
that broken-down care facilities admit contagious vulnerable people.

After Trump’s electoral defeat, the wall of silence about Cuomo’s missteps began to crumble, and grumbling over the nursing homes debacle started to
draw attention outside conservative cable news circles.

Just then, a trickle of allegations emerged about Cuomo as an importuning sexual predator. Women who worked for him or who encountered him in public situations recounted a pattern of noxious, handsy behavior — perhaps not
so monstrous as Harvey Weinstein’s, but certainly sleazy and in violation
of the governor’s own stated beliefs and official policies.

At this point, everyone agrees that Cuomo must leave office — everyone,
that is, except Cuomo himself, who hopes he can weather this out, despite
all the signs.

The governor seems to be wrestling with the famous “Five Stages of Grief,” first articulated by Elisabeth Kübler-Ross to describe how people grapple
with the news that they are dying or dealing with a similarly profound
shock to the system.

I bring you Cuomo’s Five Stages of Grief:

Denial. Andrew Cuomo is a master of insisting that reality is not as it
appears to everyone else. Throughout the pandemic he repeated that he had
done nothing wrong, hiding the data, changing definitions, and obscuring
the meaning of his own policies. He blamed nursing home operators for not having enough supplies on hand. “Donald Trump caused the COVID outbreak in
New York,” Cuomo said in September 2020.

After his former aide Lindsey Boylan accused Cuomo last December of sexual harassment — only a few weeks after he received his Emmy — the governor
began his litany of denials. “It’s just not true,” he said. All 11 of his accusers, it seems, are deluded.

Anger. How dare they? In response to harassment accusations, Team Cuomo
swung into action to avenge their leader’s betrayal. Cuomo enlisted the uber-feminist “Time’s Up” crew to craft a strategy of disparagement
against his accusers, leaking confidential employee records and implying
they were crazy stalkers. Cuomo personally called legislators who
criticized his COVID actions and said he would “destroy” them. Anger is
the governor’s baseline state, anyway, so this came naturally.

Bargaining. OK, mistakes were made. The governor now concedes that his
totally innocent gestures of affection may have been open to
misinterpretation on the part of their unwilling recipients. Cuomo’s aides
put together a slideshow of all the many hugs and kisses he has long
dispensed near and far. It’s not his fault if a bunch of stuffy women
weren’t receptive to his gemütlichkeit. Didn’t they ever see one of those
“Kiss me, I’m Italian!” T-shirts they sell in Coney Island?

Depression. This seems to be where the Love Gov currently is. Hiding from
the press. Huddling with his dwindling retinue, bunker-style. Fingering
his executive-seal cuff links. Wondering where it all went wrong.

Acceptance. Resignation is inevitable. Coming to terms with his
precipitous fall and recognizing his own part in it will occupy the rest
of Andrew Cuomo’s life. It will require him to undergo ego-death on a
scale unseen in the spiritual history of humanity.

Still, don’t count him out. It may take a while following his departure
from office — give it eight months — but expect to see a reformed,
penitent Andrew Cuomo emerge from a PR chrysalis soon enough, probably
with a new book for sale. You can’t keep a good man down.

Seth Barron is managing editor of The American Mind and author of the new
book, “The Last Days of New York” (Humanix Books), out now.

https://nypost.com/2021/08/07/cuomo-will-resign-once-he-gets-through-five- stages-of-grief/

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