John McCain said last night on 60 Minutes that he would consider nominating Clinton Administration HUD Secretary Andrew Cuomo to chair the Security and Exchange Commission in a McCain administration. This may be the dumbest single thing John McCain has said during the course of the 2008 presidential campaign and suggests he simply wasn’t paying attention during Cuomo’s corrupt tenure at HUD. Cuomo’s tenure was marked by shady business associations, the deeply politicized use of taxpayer dollars that John McCain criticizes in his stump speech, and, worst of all, the kinds of high-risk loans schemes that have characterized the current housing and economic crisis. Cuomo, who announced his run to be governor of New York just nine days after he left HUD, used the federal housing bureaucracy as his de facto campaign headquarters. HUD pumped out slick, high-dollar brochures that touted his “accomplishments” in areas that had nothing to do with housing. The photos for some of those taxpayer-financed brochures ended up on Cuomo’s campaign website. As it happens, I looked carefully at Cuomo’s HUD tenure back in the spring of 2001.
As HUD secretary, he paid lavish attention to New York. He showered his home state-particularly the electorally important upstate region-with federal dollars, and essentially used HUD as his gubernatorial campaign headquarters. In his final 13 months as HUD secretary, Cuomo made 46 official trips. More than half of those-25-were to New York. California, his second favorite destination, saw Cuomo 4 times in the same period. “I did more for upstate New York from Washington than the [Pataki] administration has done from Albany,” Cuomo said in February. And locals, at least in the short term, are grateful. But New York housing officials are worried that Cuomo’s self-promotion could have negative, real-dollar consequences for the upstate economy. Some of the money for HUD’s $100 million Erie Canal Corridor Initiative came as so-called Section 108 loans. Through the program, small cities and towns put up future HUD allocations as collateral for present loans. If the loans go bad, the future money is lost. “HUD has, in effect, mortgaged our future money,” says Joseph Lynch, New York’s top housing official, whose career spans four decades. “There are probably more [Section] 108 loan guarantees in New York than in the entire country.” Another high-ranking New York housing administrator agrees. “We’ve got a black cloud over us for the next 18 years, all so [Cuomo] could issue press releases.” Worse news for Cuomo: A report this spring from HUD’s New York-based inspector general’s office rips the entire Erie Canal Corridor project and claims, “While the Initiative has produced limited successes by means of public improvement projects, most activities have been slow moving; thus, compromising the Initiative’s ultimate success.”
Cuomo frequently criticized New York Governor George Pataki for using taxpayer funds for his campaign. On the surface, it was political hypocrisy at its worst. But it was smart. By leveling those charges against his opponent — and doing so first — Cuomo inoculated himself from the same claims. Still, when I asked him about a congressional report detailing his misdealings, he first disputed its findings and then explained them.
“That was incorrect. That was incorrect,” he said, of the congressional report. “First of all, I represented every-the airplane is different. The airplane is, look at the specifics. You say one thing, and you do another. That’s what the airplane is. You say one thing and do another. The advertising, you say one thing and do another. Vieques, you say one thing you do another. And that’s troubling. I don’t care what you believe, but believe something and then be consistent. And I can disagree with you, but at least stand in front of me and be honest. “As far as my coming to New York, first of all I worked in every state,” he explained. “Second of all I was from New York, and anyone who understands how government and politics works, knows when you’re a cabinet secretary from a certain state, the administration tends to use you in that state. That’s why you have a cabinet secretary from all different parts of the country. And when you need to communicate in that state, you use that cabinet secretary. So that’s sort of a silly, silly point. When I was HUD secretary I went into a lot of houses. Yeah, but that sorta goes with the construct.”
This is the exchange McCain had with Scott Pelley last night.
Scott Pelley: I’m curious. If you wanna fire Chris Cox, the chairman of the SEC, who would you replace him with? McCain: This may sound a little unusual, but I’ve admired Andrew Cuomo. I think he is somebody who could restore some credibility, lend some bipartisanship to this effort. Pelley: He’s a Democrat. McCain: Oh, yes. Pelley: He served in the cabinet of President Clinton. McCain: Yes. And he did a good job. And he has respect. And he has prestige.
A good job? Now that is bad judgment.
