I don't know about you, I'm sorry that Andrew Cuomo is in a mess of trouble, but he's done it to himself! Covering up and cheating is bad politics! You'd think a man of his heritage and intellectual savvy would know better than to be an ass at age 63! Last year at this time, one of my favorite people was almost sure he'd be a splendid candidate for president in 2024. As for me, I loved his father Mario Cuomo, but I've mostly felt indifferent about Andrew. He was acceptable to me as a possible presidential candidate, however, I could take him or leave him. As for now, I'd just as soon leave him. Now as for his brother Chris the CNN commentator, I hope Andrew's nonsense doesn't spill over on to him!
Here's a circumstance somewhat kindred to the trouble Governor Cuomo is in. Roseanna Sommers is an assistant professor of law at the University of Michigan. In a recent editorial in the Times she presents the following scenario: Frank and Ellen meet at college and develop a friendship through a series of after class dates. Ellen tells Frank at one point that if a man is married, that's a deal breaker for her. Frank lies to Ellen and eventually they go to bed. Later Ellen finds out that Frank really is married. Is Frank subsequently guilty of rape? Ms. Sommers discovers that many say that he isn't guilty of rape, not because they don't think Frank was dishonest, but due to their understanding of what constitutes consent. Ellen's "consent" was, they insist, an expression of her autonomous (self-governing and independent) will. In other words, as I understand it, Frank's deception does not fully invalidate her consent. Sommers seems to believe that Frank's denial of his marriage constitutes "fraud, and fraud or theft traditionally nullifies the legitimacy of a transaction or interaction." What say you?
I was sufficiently pleased enough with last week's column to consider sending it to the New York Times for publication until I got a response from one of you. I think of her as "the mighty Minnesotan." Like me, she's to the left of center in most of her beliefs except when it comes to abortion. I spanked "pro-life" advocates for being manipulative and, to a degree at least, disingenuous in their opposition to abortion while advocating "The New Civility." She asserted, and rightly so, that no Conservative would recognize my "New Civility" as presented in last week's column! Your point is well taken Miss Minnesota! This column will not go to the Times!
I'm about halfway through former President Obama's A Promised Land which is narrated by the author himself. As I listen to the book which is read so smoothly and expressed so sincerely by the former president, I feel so proud of my instinct to vote for him twice. He's frank about his opponents without belittling them, he's highly complementary about his friends, his staff, and he is absolutely wild about Michelle and their children! My only slight disappointment with the book is that he doesn't adequately share with the reader his feelings about the adoration that was shown toward him by so many people. He does fully share his empathy with his supporters, but he doesn't write what it felt like when he stepped out onto the steps of the east side of the Capitol to give his first inaugural address. Exactly why he chooses to end the first volume of his memoir at the time of his seizure of Osama bin Laden rather than at the conclusion of his first term seems a bit strange, but I certainly am already anxious to read volume II, even before I'm done with Volume I. I hope he narrates that one, too!
I don't know about you, but I can be quite critical from time to time with those I love best, hence I'm a bit amazed how both pleased and even surprised I am about President Joe Biden's time in office. He's compromised when that's necessary, thus dropping his insistence that $15 an hour as a minimum wage must be included and can wait for the right time to be passed, and he was right to modify the number of Americans eligible for relief checks this time around., I think most of us are going to benefit from his 46 years in Congress. I say that because he seems to have an instinct when and when not to be pushy with Congress. Having written that, I did think he was a bit off this last week when he described the actions of the Mississippi and Texas governors as being Neanderthals. After all, Neanderthals were very inventive during their time. They had to be in order to survive the elements. Perhaps Mississippi's Tate Reeves and Texas's Greg Abbott are primarily political, but neither in my estimation is exactly Neanderthalic! In fact, I think they're pretty smart politicians. After all, if the people, or most of the people, of those two states are smart and ignore the expressed positions of those two governors and end up protecting themselves, resulting in no increase in pandemic infections, both governors will have pleased their business-oriented constituents while simultaneously benefiting from the people's collective wisdom. Come to think of it, there must have been more than a few rather intelligent Neanderthals so many thousands of years ago!
I was sorry to learn of the passing of former Secretary of State George Pratt Shultz who turned 100 last December 13th. I once knew a gentleman who, as he neared his ninetieth birthday, said "The reason I'm happy to be getting old is that I've heard that the first 100 years are the hardest!" I was never a George P. Shultz fan, but he wears a lot better than the man he replaced as Secretary of State in June of 1982, Alexander Haig, the man who was only temporarily in charge the day President Reagan was shot. Technically, Haig was incorrect according to the line of succession which puts the Speaker of the House of Representatives next after the Vice President, but George H. W. Bush was on his way back to Washington that Monday, March 31st, 1981. I'm also sorry to learn that 97 year-old former Senator Bob Dole is ill with stage 4 lung cancer. Senator Dole was born on Sunday, July 22nd, 1923. Finally, I'm hoping Jimmy Carter makes it to his 100th birthday on October 1st, 2024! That'll be on a Tuesday!
Okay, enough babble! My mind is now empty! Now I "...lay me down to sleep!" Hence until next time...
RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED,
EDWIN COONEY
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