Cuomo walks an ideological tightrope

Daniel Akst is a member of the Newsday editorial board.

Many of the men I know have a dirty little secret - a fantasy we share mainly with one another, when we've finished talking about tech toys and investments and whatever sport happens to be in season.

Sooner or later, at such times, one of us will describe it aloud. "Imagine," the fantasy goes, "that a politician came along who was socially liberal and fiscally conservative."

The others will just stare, transfixed.

"A politician who is not an anti-government nut, but who shies away from our wallets and stays out of our bedrooms. Someone who knows that people respond to incentives. That competition is a goad to excellence."

"And," says another eagerly, "that the state can't help the poor if it drives itself off a financial cliff."

"Someone who can make sense of a financial statement."

"Is comfortable with technology."

"And has read Mancur Olson!"

OK, so we get a little carried away. But it's time to stop being ashamed of a fantasy that is surprisingly widespread. The word "libertarian" scares people, but when a Zogby poll asked some 2006 voters, "Would you describe yourself as fiscally conservative and socially liberal?" a remarkable 59 percent said yes.

I can't say how this might translate into voting behavior. But New York's new governor may be in a position to find out.

In his first week in office, Andrew Cuomo has been acting like just the sort of politician a lot of libertarian-leaning voters have been wishing for, which is strange indeed for a New York Democrat.

Yet the times call for no less. New York, after all, is facing a projected $10-billion budget deficit, and it already has one of the heaviest tax burdens in the nation. So Cuomo favors spending cuts and a property tax cap.

But he also supports gay marriage, abortion rights and an end to the idea that juvenile incarceration is a worthy jobs program for depressed towns upstate. Since the GOP is no longer a hospitable place for a person with such adult views, perhaps we shouldn't be surprised to find an anti-tax Democrat in the executive mansion - even one named Cuomo.

It's easy to forget that once upon a time there were liberals and conservatives in both parties. In those days there was a breed of good-government Republican - New York produced them in bulk - who firmly regulated business even while embracing it and believed the state had an important role to play in protecting the little guy.

Theodore Roosevelt, before he became a trust-busting president, was a Republican governor of New York. Louis Lefkowitz, the consumer-oriented attorney general, was a Republican too. So were Nelson Rockefeller during his years as New York's big-spending governor, and liberal mayors Fiorello LaGuardia and John Lindsay of New York City.

Cuomo might have fit in among Republicans back then. Times have changed, of course. The state is broke. And by forging a centrist path, the new governor will walk out onto the high wire without the ballast of some traditional Democratic constituencies.

We've seen this act before, and it doesn't always end well. Arnold Schwarzenegger in California and Jesse Ventura in Minnesota were charismatic, libertarian-leaning governors whose popularity was deflated by the sharp realities of governing.

Then again, Cuomo won't be the first modern Democrat who tries to prove that you can balance the budget without letting the needy die in the streets. It won't be easy. But it worked out pretty well for Bill Clinton.