Firing away at Cuomo

Daily Point

Getting in their shots

With Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo on his way out the door, Republicans all around the state and up and down the ballot have been eager to take their last jabs and to turn the governor’s downfall to their particular political advantage. Just see their Facebook ads.

Some ads, like one from State Sen. Anthony Palumbo and the New York State Senate Republican Campaign Committee, highlight individual calls for Cuomo’s resignation. Others, like one from Nassau County Legis. William Gaylor in August, remind social media viewers of moments when the politician crossed Cuomo — in Gaylor’s case, his support for in-person Memorial Day ceremonies.

Sometimes the Cuomo connection gets very specific or very local, whether it’s a Dutchess County legislative race or one for Nassau district attorney.

"WHY ARE THESE TWO SMILING," asked an August ad from the Nassau County Republican Committee above a picture of Cuomo and Democratic DA hopeful Todd Kaminsky. "Maybe because they knew Senator Todd Kaminsky's 'Cashless Bail' Law might actually spring Gov. Cuomo from jail," the ad continues fancifully.

New Yorkers can expect Cuomo to remain a subject for the GOP long after he leaves office. The Broome County Republicans, for example, are already criticizing the Democratic-dominated Assembly for a will-they-or-won't-they level of commitment to the impeachment investigation, a criticism that could potentially be applied to individual members of the Assembly going forward. Last week, Assemb. Michael Montesano (R-Glen Head), ranking member of the Judiciary Committee, was front and center on the matter in real life, pushing for details of the impeachment probe to be released.

And some Republicans are aiming their Cuomo fire at the governor’s brother, Chris, the CNN host who appears to have advised his sibling during the unfolding sexual harassment scandal.

"Tell CNN to Fire Chris Cuomo Now," says an ad from New York City GOP mayoral candidate Curtis Sliwa.

— Mark Chiusano @mjchiusano

Quick Points

Mounting misery

• Impoverished Haiti was hit by a 7.2 magnitude earthquake, a month after its president was assassinated, still in recovery mode from an even more disastrous earthquake 11 years ago, with a tropical storm due to inflict more misery Monday night. The next time any of us says times are hard, we should remember Haiti for context.
• President Joe Biden’s top advisers were apparently stunned by how quickly the Afghan military collapsed in the face of the Taliban advance. The only surprising thing here is their surprise.
• As throngs of migrants try to cross the Southern border, American authorities use "expulsion flights" to send them back deep into southern Mexico to hopefully keep them from trying to return. A Trumpian policy? Nope, it’s being done now by the Biden administration, a reminder of how immigration keeps reshuffling the deck.
• Soon-to-be Gov. Kathy Hochul says it "won’t be difficult" to leave behind the tawdry legacy of Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and other state officials convicted of various crimes and to change the tone in Albany. Changing tone is one thing; changing culture is another.
• Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis wants the state to dispense Regeneron monoclonal antibodies to COVID-19 patients to help them recover, saying, "COVID’s not going to go away. So the question is how we are going to approach it." Of course, it’s not going to go away, governor, when you ban local mandates for masks and vaccines.
• The co-founder and CEO of fact-checking site snopes.com admitted he plagiarized from dozens of articles over five years, presenting the work as his own — a mistake he blamed on a lack of formal journalism experience. Someone should fact-check that excuse.

— Michael Dobie @mwdobie

Pencil Point

COVID noise

For more cartoons, visit www.newsday.com/nationalcartoons

Final Point

In the news — the answers

Here are the answers to Friday’s news quiz. Reading the first letters of each answer in order gives the answer to the overall clue asking for the name of an American politician who last week suffered a COVID-related loss in court and in the court of public opinion: Ron DeSantis, the governor of Florida.

R KELLY: Grammy-winning R&B star whose trial on sex-trafficking charges began with jury selection in Brooklyn.

OYSTER: Lingering pandemic concerns forced the cancellation of this iconic annual North Shore festival scheduled for October.

NINETEEN: The number of Republican senators who joined with Democrats to pass the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill.

DALLAS: The first school district in Texas to defy Gov. Greg Abbott’s order banning mask mandates in state schools. (The district is the second-largest in Texas.)

ELEPHANTS: China led a runaway herd of these animals back to within 125 miles of their nature reserve after they had spent a year lumbering as far as 300 miles from home.

SINEMA: The lead Democratic Party negotiator on the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill passed by the U.S. Senate.

ALCOHOL: The FAA urged airports to stop serving this in to-go containers, to try to cut down on incidents of unruly passengers.

NEWSOM: Big-state governor who announced a vaccination mandate for all of his state’s teachers and school staff.

TOXIC: Incoming Gov. Kathy Hochul said that under her leadership the work environment in state government would not be this.

INDONESIA: This Asian country of more than 17,000 islands saw new eruptions from the most active of its 120-plus active volcanoes, on the island of Java.

SALT LAKE CITY: This three-word city had some of the worst air quality in the world thanks to smoke drifting eastward from California’s wildfires.

— Michael Dobie @mwdobie

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