There’s 538 and then there is my friend, a classic liberal who last week – well before release of the recent Siena Poll showing broad public/voter support for Andrew Cuomo – had the following back and forth by text with a Congressperson of their acquaintance:

Classic Liberal: The good news is that the photo being used for your [fundraising] appeals is perfect and the harangue ‘you need to read this immediately’ works nicely, so let me borrow it ‘you need to’ understand that you joined a bad crowd in a bad demand today – bad more because of the let’s all now stab Caesar dynamic than the one being stabbed.  I don’t like Andrew [very personal grievances documented].  He is guilty of many things and may be guilty of the things currently alleged.  Leaving aside the truly shocking nature of some allegations – a kiss at a wedding foremost among the atrocities – you still believe in due process don’t you?  Because of who I am I’ve been asked dozens of times this week about this by regular folks and my unscientific poll says the voters are not behind his forced resignation and a large majority of Democrats do not want him to resign.  This may play out even worse than Franken.  I hope not and hope you consider that a lot of people who don’t like Andrew feel the way I do about this.

Congressperson: As usual you make a strong case . . . But I dissent.  These women aren’t all lying.  That’s pretty much the end.  But we have to add that to the admitted lying on the nursing home front (and yes, I know your argument there, but it’s more serious than just where people died).  And he can have all the due process in the world and should, but that doesn’t mean he can, under any circumstances demand the right to stay in office while that plays out.  It’s politics, Andrew of all people should know all this.  Sorry to disappoint you.

Classic Liberal: Sorry to disappoint you and continue to disagree with you, but unless you possess the powers of the precogs in The Minority Report you don’t know the truth or falsity or degree of either of any of these allegations that appeared Deus Ex Machina after the nursing home ‘scandal’ surfaced with the first allegation being . . . the first time, to my knowledge, that a political campaign began with the candidate’s major qualification being ‘I was kissed by the governor and didn’t like it.”  Not only can “he demand to stay in office” he can stay in office until removed by a constitutional procedure.  He may not because of the mob that can’t wait.  But I hope he does.

The week after this exchange the highly respected Siena College polling service released results of a poll showing 50% support for Cuomo to not resign and 35% believing he should.  That 35% is suspiciously close to the deep blue state’s percentage of Republicans, who recently and overwhelmingly voted for a rapist/insurrectionist whose hands bear the blood of hundreds of thousands of recently deceased Americans.

Al Franken & Kirsten Gillibrand

The mob of pols, including 14 Democratic members of the House, Senators Schumer and Gillibrand, the state Senate’s majority leader and its Assembly’s speaker uniformly claim that Cuomo has lost his ability to govern.  But the governed by a 14 percent margin disagree.  Fifty-seven percent of those polled said Cuomo’s apology was satisfactory, while only 32 percent found it unsatisfactory.  Women, unsurprisingly were more supportive than men of Cuomo staying in office and women more than men found his apology satisfactory.  Music to HL’s liberal ears were poll results revealing that 69% to 19% were satisfied with Cuomo’s response to the allegations.

Two very revealing and disturbing takeaways are: first, that New York’s Democratic pols are either out of touch or don’t much care about what the people who put them in office want.  Typified by the aforementioned Congressperson’s comments that “It’s politics, Andrew of all people should know all this.”  And second, the pols distorted take on due process, where all the process that is due occurs after the accused has been executed or in this case, compelled to commit suicide.  For now, at least Cuomo won’t cooperate with those perversions of democracy and civil liberty.

Joe Biden & Tara Reade

As we were about to post, President Biden weighed in again.  His previous take was ours, withholding judgment until due process had occurred.  He’s still of that mind, but this time added that if the allegations are proven, Cuomo might be subject to prosecution.  Really Joe?  Say it ain’t so, since the seven allegations against Andrew are eerily similar to the eight that came tumbling out at you in the Spring of 2020 and even more similar to your explanation at the time, pledging to do better moving forward.  But that was a different era, a whole ten months ago.