After his disastrous nursing home policy led to COVID-19 killing more than 10,000 nursing home residents, New York Attorney General Letitia James found that Gov. Andrew Cuomo sexually harassed at least 11 women in violation of state and federal law. California Gov. Gavin Newsom faces a recall election next month, with the polls narrowing his fate to a dead heat. Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser has resorted to calling this reporter a “right-wing wingnut” after Washington Examiner reports showed her violating the indoor mask mandate she imposed on her city.
And yet, odds are that all three of these politicians will remain in office by the year’s end. This isn’t just a moral failure. It’s a strategic one because, thanks to overwhelming Democratic supermajorities, they would all be replaced by fellow left-wing Democrats.
National Democrats, including the Empire State’s entire congressional delegation, have now called for Cuomo’s resignation, but everyone knows he lacks the shame and the sense of service to go anywhere. Given James’s requirement to punt the question of criminal charges down the line, it’s ultimately up to state Democrats to oust Cuomo via impeachment. Why shouldn’t they? Under New York state law, Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul would fill the vacancy, and the next Democratic primary would open up the odds for James, a black woman, to succeed her.
Given the specific structure of California’s recall process, any prominent Democrat who decided to jump into the race would immediately become the odds-on favorite to replace Newsom. California’s strong Democratic Party renders Newsom’s ouster unlikely should the field remain dominantly Republican. But if #Resistance stars such as Reps. Ted Lieu or Adam Schiff or former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa jumped in, they could convince those centrists and left-leaning voters tired of Newsom’s hypocrisy and rank incompetence to vote yes on the recall.
And if the Washington, D.C., electorate, of which 92% voted for Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election, decided to recall Bowser, she too would be replaced by another Democrat, maybe just not one who has overseen Washington’s murder rate reach its highest point in 15 years, with no signs of stopping. Should a mayor who, when caught violating her own mask mandate, simply smears the reporter who broke the story as some sort of COVID-19 denier or anti-vaxxer, a demonstrably false smear, really seek a third term uninterrupted?
There is no point in defending despots who refuse to follow their own rules, much less prevent their jurisdictions from going to hell. And quite frankly, it’s strategic. If you know for a fact that any of these three would be replaced by an equally extreme Democrat, why wouldn’t you oust Cuomo as an insurance policy against whataboutism in 2024 should former President Donald Trump try to run again? And as far a defense from hypocrisy goes, recalling a modern-day Marie Antoinette or two would provide an obvious retort to conservatives accusing Democrats of applying rules to thee but not for me.
Yeah, yeah, the same point obviously applies to But Trump!, but that is precisely the point. With Biden in the Oval Office, But Bowser! and But Cuomo! are potent threats to the Democrats 2022 odds, unless they neutralize them.
That’s ethical politics, but also smart politics. Still, I won’t hold my breath for any of this to happen.
