Bye, Felicia!*

I did not expect this to happen this quickly, but Andrew "Rat-Faced Andy" Cuomo has announced that he is resigning as the Governor of New York. 

Given all the things that he has done during his time as Governor, killing nursing home patients and covering it up, shutting down a corruption investigation that he initiated, actively working to keep Republicans in control of the State Senate, etc. it is remarkable just how long he has survived.

His political career is now over, and New York and the nation will be the better for it:

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York said on Tuesday that he would resign from office, succumbing to a ballooning sexual harassment scandal in an astonishing reversal of fortune for one of the nation’s best-known leaders.

Mr. Cuomo said his resignation would take effect in 14 days. Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, will be sworn in to replace him, becoming the first woman in history to occupy New York State’s top office.

“Given the circumstances, the best way I can help now is if I step aside and let government get back to governing,” Mr. Cuomo said in remarks streamed from his office in Midtown Manhattan. “And therefore, that’s what I’ll do.”

Mr. Cuomo’s dramatic fall was shocking in its velocity and vertical drop: A year ago, the governor was being hailed as a national hero for his steady leadership amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The resignation of Mr. Cuomo, 63, a three-term Democrat, came a week after a report from the New York State attorney general concluded that the governor sexually harassed nearly a dozen women, including current and former government workers, by engaging in unwanted touching and making inappropriate comments. The 165-page report also found that Mr. Cuomo and his aides unlawfully retaliated against at least one of the women for making her complaints public and fostered a toxic work environment.

As an aside, there are wider repurcussions indicating that Cuomo's brand, for not at least, is increasingly toxic, with Roberta Kaplan, a noted public interest lawyer with a long record on LGBTQ cases, was forced to resign from Time’s Up, an advocacy group dedicated to supporting survivors of sexual abuse and harassment, and Alonzo David, the President of the Human Rights Campaign, is under investigation by this organization for his role in retaliating against Cuomo accusers. 

Hopefully, the fallout from this will result in a lot of former Cuomo aides and supporters losing their power and positions.

Cuomo is a thoroughly toxic person, even ignoring his behavior towards woman, and he, and his, should be excised from the public sphere completely.

^*Bye, Felicia is a phrase used to contemptuously dismiss someone. It comes from the movie Friday.