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Asked about Gov. George Pataki's performance in the aftermath of the horrific events of Sept. 11 and its impact on his re-election bid, the Democratic contender's response came instantly, directly and candidly.
"Every time after the attack, and Rudy Giuliani had a press conference, there was this tall guy standing behind him," the candidate said dismissively. "So people see him. But look what he did."
The words didn't come, as you might be thinking, from Andrew Cuomo while speaking to reporters on his campaign bus en route to Buffalo almost two weeks ago. They were spoken three months ago by his rival for the Democratic nomination, State Comptroller H. Carl McCall, during an interview with the Niagara Falls Reporter Editorial Board.
But wait a minute, you say. Didn't a group of Democratic elected officials and party leaders who support McCall attack Cuomo for his comments last week, calling on him to close down his campaign?
They certainly did.
"We urge you to drop out of the race for governor for the good of the Democratic Party," read a letter to Cuomo signed by five Assembly members, including Majority Leader Paul Tokasz, who represents Cheektowaga. "That will ensure that your remarks will not be held against other Democrats."
But during that Jan. 25 chat at the Como Restaurant, McCall's own remarks were at least as critical, as well as more specific.
Here's the Cuomo quote that started the firestorm.
"There was one leader for 9/11 -- it was Rudy Giuliani," he said when asked to compare the performances of the governor and the mayor. "If it defined George Pataki, it defined him as not being the leader. He stood behind the leader. He held the leader's coat. He was a great assistant to the leader. But he was not a leader."
Compare that to McCall's words above, as well as the rest of his answer (first published in the Jan. 27 edition of the Reporter):
"President Bush committed $20 billion to New York as an incentive," McCall continued. "George Pataki goes to Washington with a $54 billion wish list, all kinds of projects that had nothing to do with what happened. They literally laughed at him.
"He didn't do his homework. He didn't call (Sen. Hillary Clinton), he didn't call (Sen. Charles Schumer). He didn't even call the Republicans and say, 'What should I do?' Bottom line, you know what the State of New York got from Washington? $8.3 billion. That's less than half what the president committed. That's a major failure and here's the governor who's in the same party as the president."
McCall supporters and countless Republicans savaged Cuomo for his statement, as if he had suggested that Pataki was either somehow responsible for or indifferent to the terrorist attacks. Members of the state's political press, meanwhile, imitated their counterparts in the sports department by analyzing the impact of Cuomo's "rookie mistake" in the polls, rather than discussing the substance of his words.
The point here isn't to rip McCall or Cuomo for daring to tread on ground considered off-limits by innately gutless political types. But McCall might want to speak to his supporters before they make themselves, and by extension him, look any more hypocritical.
The GOP is already stomping down that path. Republican leaders vilified Cuomo for politicizing Sept. 11, as if dramatically scored television commercials featuring dust-covered firefighters and grieving widows weren't already in the planning stages.
Kissing up to Pataki now won't help McCall eliminate Cuomo's lead in the polls (well into the double digits, according to surveys earlier this month by Quinnipiac and Marist colleges). Nor will it help him unseat the incumbent, should the comptroller regain his former front-runner status in time for the Democratic primary.
Not a single vote should be cast on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November based on who stood where in the days and weeks after Sept. 11. But who did or didn't (and will or won't) do what to rebuild the devastation of lower Manhattan and quell the fiscal aftershocks felt throughout an already beleaguered state? That's a more legitimate campaign issue than you usually get in any race.
As McCall concluded in that January interview, "It's the same as the economy of Niagara Falls. When you look at it, you've got to say, 'What has this guy done for us?'"
| Niagara Falls Reporter | www.niagarafallsreporter.com | April 30 2002 |