Posted on 11/17/2001 8:35:50 AM PST by Tumbleweed_Connection
Former Clinton Housing Secretary Andrew Cuomo has been caught on audiotape warning that the black and Hispanic coalition that dominated New York City's Democratic mayoral contest this year "can't happen" again in New York's gubernatorial race next year.
Cuomo, son of New York Gov. Mario Cuomo, told fellow Democrats on election night that nominating his gubernatorial rival, State Comptroller Carl McCall, would be "the second installment in that contract, that racial contract, and that can't happen."
McCall, an African-American, called Cuomo's comments "divisive."
"It's a shame that the former secretary is running this type of crass campaign for his own political gain," said McCall on Friday. McCall has consistently trailed Cuomo in polls on the 2002 governor's race.
Cuomo spokesman Peter Ragone first denied Cuomo used the term "racial contract," arguing that the recording of the controversial comments, made by Jewish Week reporter Adam Dickter, was too muddled to be understood.
But a reporter for the New York Times, who heard the tape Friday, reported in Saturday's editions that the recording "makes clear that the quote was accurate."
Playing the race card as avidly as any 1960's Dixiecrat, Cuomo's warning that blacks and Hispanics could scuttle the Democratic Party's chances next year seems certain to further exacerbate tensions in a party already split along racial fault lines.
Add to that the fact that Cuomo's comment isn't the first time New York's leading Democratic family has appealed to racial fears in a bid for high office.
During the 1994 campaign that ousted then-Gov. Mario Cuomo, the state's first lady Matilda Cuomo twice warned that blacks would riot unless her husband was reelected.
"I think we could have race riots" if he is Pataki elected, she warned, in an interview with New York's Daily News.
Mrs. Cuomo had earlier told the New York Times that without her husband's leadership, New York would "have rebellions worse than L.A." and "people killing each other."
Sigh...time to get the wife's hairdryer to get the coffee inside the keyboard dried up :)
My point is that it doesn't make a damn bit of difference who you are, if at any time you create an obstacle for their cause, you become worthless. The media for several reasons hides that fact. How many liberal supporters across the nation realized what Carnahan did to Ashcroft? How many are realizing what Daschle is doing to them? How many know what Cuomo did? Why don't they know? Would Carnahan, Daschle, or Cuomo continue if the media changed?
Yes! You are so right! They always say stuff like "those" people when referring to minorities. Then in the next breath they will argue how compassionate they are.
One of my favorite replies to the "those people" remark is "What do you mean by 'those people'". That always gets them to walk away real fast before launching into anther "I am the most compassionate person on earth" speech.
Great post.
Housing chief sentenced in embezzlement case
By JOHN BRIGGS
SYRACUSE — U.S. District Court Judge Frederick I. Scullin sentenced Utica’s former Director of Housing Robert Munson Jr. to “one year and a day” in federal prison Friday for embezzling $113,967 in federal funds between 1994 and 1998.
Munson pleaded guilty to the felony charge last December. He will report to prison at 2 p.m. Dec. 11. He was also sentenced to three years’ supervised release after he leaves jail, and he must pay back the money he stole.
The former housing chief stole the money in U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Community Block Grant money over a period of several years.
The judge also ordered Munson to continue with counseling.
Dressed in a dark suit, Munson, a thin, dark-haired man, stood nervously as Scullin lectured him prior to the sentencing for failing to cooperate with investigators from the probation department during the pre-sentencing investigation.
“You haven’t reported anything up front to the court since we started,” Scullin said, referring to discoveries by the investigators that Munson had been discharged from other jobs for stealing. “Why should we believe you now?”
Details of those accusations were not released, and neither Munson nor his attorney, Robert Wells, would comment after the hearing.
Wells told Scullin, as he pleaded for leniency, that his client was puzzling to him. “I scratch my head and don’t understand why people do the things they do,” he said. “Bob Munson is not a bad soul."
Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard R. Southwick told Scullin that leniency wasn’t warranted.
“The efforts he had to make to avoid detection were extensive,” he said. “(And) Mr. Munson did this while he was a public official who had charge of thousands and thousands of dollars. It is important for the public to see that justice is done here.”
As housing director, according to court documents, Munson created bid specifications for housing rehabilitation projects and had contractors submit the required 5 percent bid security in the form of money orders or checks with the payee portion left blank.
He then filled in his own name and and cashed the checks.
He returned the bid securities to the contractors when they were unsuccessful in getting the contract or, when they got the contract, after they completed the job, by stealing the federal block grant money over which he “had administrative authority,” court documents state.
To get those repayment vouchers processed through the city’s system, he forged the signatures of former mayors Louis LaPolla and Edward Hanna, former Corporation Counsel Joseph Hobika, and Thomas Larrabee, then head of the Department of Urban and Economic Development.
Budget Director Heather Mowat said Munson’s scheme couldn’t work today.
“Since the HUD draft audit (of the city’s handling of block grant money) came out two years ago,” she said, “the procedures have been tightened. After reviewing that document, we made sure that all bids have to go through the Board of Contract and Supply, instead of through just one person. No one will be able to do again what Munson did.”
Court records Southwick provided show a total of 225 bid security checks or money orders that Munson made out to himself and cashed.
Some of them were for amounts as small as $75. The majority were for $500, and the records show numerous instances of several checks or money orders with the same date.
That pattern persisted throughout the four years.
Southwick said that a single contractor, G.R. Grates Construction Corp., was involved with the 225 transactions.
No one could be reached at the company late Friday afternoon, and Greg Grates’s cell phone was out of service.
Southwick said the investigation will continue.
“We have nothing at present that we can prosecute,” he said, “but we’re continuing the investigation in a generalized sense.”
Alot of money disappeared during Cuomo's reign as HUD director. This is only one tale. If he couldn't handle HUD, what makes him think he could handle the State of New York. He's a putz just like his father!
Ah, yes, competence. Of course, I've been out of the metro area for about a year now, so there may be more recent revelations I haven't heard recently.
I thought, before 9/11, that McCall's toughest battle would have been the primary -- if he could win that, he could win the general election. Now, it seems pretty clear to me that he should easily get the nomination and lose to Pataki.
What's your assessment, NNY?
McCall Criticizes Cuomo for a 'Divisive' Comment
One interesting excerpt from the article:
Mr. Ragone would not concede that Mr. Cuomo had used the phrase "racial contract," saying that a tape recording made by The Jewish Week's reporter, Adam Dickter, was unintelligible. But that recording, which Mr. Dickter played for The New York Times, makes clear that the quote was accurate. When told that, Mr. Ragone said he had not meant to cast doubt on its veracity.A Cuomo spokesman, Peter Ragone, said of that response, "They tried to turn it into a racial thing." Mr. Cuomo did not return calls seeking comment yesterday because, Mr. Ragone said, he was in meetings.
Charming.
Þ Which party supports the gays?
As for the Dems, don't underestimate the filth/HillaryMachine factor in boosting Cuomo.
And McCall has the backing of prominent CoreDemocrats (tm) like Rangel, so race will be a factor no matter what.
My bet is Pataki by 4% over Cuomo.
Government, not only in New York, has always attracted the criminal element. This is not an indictment of Cuomo personally. But fraud and waste are always there, and there will always be somebody there to "skim the cream" off government excess. Solution? Smaller Government!
Sounds like a perfect fit to me.
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