It’s over. Faced with universal demands for him to step down and clearly unable to govern, Gov. Andrew Cuomo did the only sane thing: He tendered his resignation.
It was only a matter of time, of course. No one wanted him around anymore. If he hadn’t quit voluntarily, the Legislature would’ve booted him.
Opposition to his continued tenure mushroomed not only because of the charges of sexual misconduct from numerous women, devastating as they were, or his deadly nursing home scandal — his efforts to damn his accusers and cover up the care home facts were added outrages.
No, animosity had grown, as John Podhoretz noted in The Post, even before his scandals broke. He’d racked up a lifetime of enemies, mostly through thuggishness, an attitude that also backfired on the last New York governor to step down, Eliot Spitzer.
Hochul will preside over a state facing soaring crime and a post-COVID economy struggling to recover. Enormous fiscal challenges lie just down the road, and next year’s race for governor will only add complexity.
Worst, she’ll have to hold back radicalized lawmakers whose agenda — yet more anti-cop measures, raising taxes further and yet more irresponsible state spending and bank-busting programs like single-payer health care — would be disastrous.
Her first order of business, of course: Clean house at the Capitol’s Second Floor, removing Cuomo loyalists, especially those linked to his numerous scandals.
Paterson managed to see the state through, despite the rocky economy at the time; Hochul might face an even heavier lift. New Yorkers should wish her well.
Source: Good riddance to an awful governor — and let’s all wish Kathy Hochul well
