The women in red
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Daily Point
Nassau’s GOP women paint the convention red
Shortly after the Republican State Committee began to convene at the Garden City Hotel early Monday, Nassau County GOP chairman Joe Cairo got a chance to show off last fall’s electoral successes to the rest of New York — an upbeat message for a state party that knows it is currently out-funded and outnumbered.
They did it up in red-state red.
Women elected on the Republican line in November wore red jackets and other red outerwear and gave brief greetings first as they were called up to the rostrum one at a time — a purposeful display of gender balance.
North Hempstead Town Supervisor Jennifer DeSena, as a Democrat who ran on the GOP line, first thanked the party and its activists for enabling her to pull off a victory in a traditional Democratic stronghold. Legis. Denise Ford, an enrolled Democrat who caucuses with the GOP majority, whom Cairo called "a Republican in spirit and philosophy," was cheered. A score of other incumbents, longtime and new, from county, town and local offices, donned the bright red.
"The party is open to everyone. Last year we had more women running than ever before," Cairo said. Comptroller Elaine Phillips proclaimed a "red wave" that can extend to the state.
But Cairo reserved the biggest buildup for new District Attorney Anne Donnelly, talked about how they met last year as he sought out her candidacy — an occasion that even drew a holdover "boo" upon the mention of State Sen. Todd Kaminsky (D-Long Beach), who lost to her. "Bail reform" supported by Kaminsky in Albany meant "no bail," Cairo said.
Cairo, who hailed Donnelly for having gone from Democrat to Republican earlier in her career, said she was the first "true Republican" elected to the job since 1974, and that "turned it all around" last November for the GOP. That was a passing historical reference to the late former DA Denis Dillon, who initially won as a Democrat running against a disgraced Republican incumbent, then ran under the GOP banner as a multiparty candidate in 1981.
Amid an extended standing ovation, Donnelly noted that she didn’t have the red on. "I apologize because nobody sent me the memo." Cairo stepped over and handed down his red tie, which she draped around her neck to cheers. She said that Cairo, in telling of their first meeting last year, left out the ending.
Leaving the restaurant where they’d discussed the nomination, he asked her if she’d seen "Casablanca." She said she loved the movie, and he asked whether she knew the final line. She said she answered, "Yes, the beginning of a beautiful friendship."
— Dan Janison @Danjanison
Talking Point
I spy Andrew
Where is Andrew M. Cuomo these days?
In New York, the former governor is appearing on the airwaves in a new TV spot playing defense against the allegations of sexual harassment collected in the infamous August report commissioned by state Attorney General Tish James that presaged his downfall.
"The case against Andrew Cuomo appears to be crumbling," a voice says in the first line of the ad, which includes the tagline "PAID FOR BY FRIENDS OF ANDREW CUOMO" and ends with a shot of the words "Political attacks won. And New Yorkers lost a proven leader."
Outside of his home state, however, down in New Orleans, Cuomo is taking some less-televised hits.
Recent raucous Mardi Gras street celebrations there have featured Cuomo-themed floats, like one highlighted by The City reporter Katie Honan with a diagram purported to chart gubernatorial groping.
Video of a float sent to The Point by another NY visitor to The Big Easy depicted Cuomo as a "Me Too Prison" inmate, with shout outs to Charlie Rose, Harvey Weinstein, Bill Clinton, and a busty blond figure saying, "How about a backrub honey."
It was all of a piece with festivities whose mood was decidedly "anti-politics," according to the Daily News: "Among the dozens of floats separated by marching bands and costumed knights on horseback were parodies mocking President Biden, former President Donald Trump, top U.S. infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci, plus former Gov. Andrew Cuomo and his ex-CNN host brother, Chris."
— Mark Chiusano @mjchiusano
Pencil Point
Praise for Putin
Credit: PoliticalCartoons.com/Bruce Plante
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Quick Points
If you say so
- European leaders who ratcheted up sanctions against Russia and support for Ukraine did so after an emotional video call from Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who told them it might be the last time they see him alive. Zelenskyy, a former actor, knows how to deliver a line — but he also has dire truth on his side.
- Gov. Kathy Hochul has ended the state mask mandate for schools come Wednesday. Now we find out whether safe is safe enough.
- Political insiders say Rep. Tom Suozzi has a narrow path to victory for the Democratic nomination for governor. It’s that little strip that runs between "impossible" and "highly unlikely," but it’s been walked before.
- Kabul University has reopened for the first time since the Taliban took over Afghanistan six months ago. Even with men and women students separated, no music classes, and Taliban standing guard, it was a good day.
- Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) called GOP Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (Georgia) and Paul Gosar (Arizona) "morons" after they attended a white nationalist camp over the weekend. Further proof that the conscience of the Republican Party isn’t only Liz Cheney.
- Former Attorney General Bill Barr says in a new book that he realized late in Donald Trump’s presidency that "Trump cared only about one thing: himself. Country and principle took second place." Hope he’s not presenting that as a revelation.
— Michael Dobie @mwdobie
