Frank's Musings

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo was forced to resign by the confluence of several embarrassing factors.  Probably the most important was his loneliness since his domestic partnership breakup.  Because of his impatient style, his search for companionship was long and unfulfilled.  Finally, he made clumsy efforts to invite romantic responses from appealing women.  In this “me-too” era, those women felt justified in publicizing their encounters with a vulnerable suiter.   This probably was not the first time any of those eleven women had been propositioned by their bosses, workmates, or casual friends; but the time was ripe for their complaints and the perpetrator was prominent.

Governor Cuomo certainly has admirable anti-misogynist credits—advocacy of women’s rights policies and regulations, three accomplished daughters, a female Lieutenant Governor and successor, to name a few. Nevertheless, as he has admitted, he didn’t realize at the time or perhaps ever thought that his own behavior could possibly be construed to imply that he abused his own power to intimidate other people, particularly employees of the opposite gender. 

His ego won’t let him acknowledge his clumsiness.  Still, our best leaders usually have high self-esteem.  Andrew Cuomo’s biggest shortcoming has been his inability to apply his professed principles personally.  That’s not an impeachable offense and surely not criminal.  But it finally caught up with him and his political career is over.