related https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/0...omos-book-became-a-publishers-worst-nightmare How Cuomo’s book became ‘a publisher’s worst nightmare.’ Gov. Andrew Cuomo, whose book “American Crisis” garnered a multimillion-dollar advance, said Tuesday that he would resign from office.Credit...Seth Wenig/Associated Press Last summer, publishers really wanted to buy Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s book. At the time, it seemed like a guaranteed best seller. Sales of political books were surging, and Mr. Cuomo had become a cable news fixture with a rising national profile as the man who steered New York through the first devastating surge of the coronavirus pandemic. When the manuscript began circulating, several major publishing companies vied for it in a frenzied auction, with bids soaring into the seven figures. Crown, an imprint of Penguin Random House, beat out competitors with an offer of more than $5 million. It was a gamble on an author whose previous memoir sold fewer than 4,000 hardcover copies. And it backfired spectacularly. On Tuesday, the governor — facing sexual harassment scandals and multiple investigations, including some related to how his book was drafted — said that he was resigning from office. “It’s like a publisher’s worst nightmare,” said Matt Latimer, whose literary agency, Javelin, represents many politicians. In the months following its October release, Mr. Cuomo’s book, “American Crisis: Leadership Lessons From the Covid-19 Pandemic,” became a source of financial and ethical headaches for Crown. Sales were surprisingly weak for a title that Crown had invested in heavily, with fewer than 50,000 hardcover copies sold, according to NPD BookScan. Promoting the book became challenging, as Mr. Cuomo was mired in investigations that battered his public image, including allegations of sexual harassment from several women. Following Mr. Cuomo’s resignation announcement on Tuesday, questions remained about whether Crown will pay the remainder of his advance. The governor’s tax records and other financial disclosures, which were released in May, showed that he received the bulk of his advance, $3.12 million, in 2020, and expected to receive the remaining $2 million in installments over the next two years. A spokesman for Mr. Cuomo said around that time that the governor netted about $1.5 million for the book after taxes and expenses, and that he donated $500,000 to the United Way of New York State for its Covid-relief program. David Drake, the president of Crown, declined to comment, as did Robert Barnett, the lawyer who represented Mr. Cuomo in his book deal. Both the New York attorney general’s office and the New York State Assembly’s judiciary committee have been investigating whether ethics rules were violated when government employees worked on Mr. Cuomo’s book. Staffers helped with tasks such as typing notes or printing and delivering drafts to the Executive Mansion, where Mr. Cuomo lives. The governor was granted permission to author the book by the state’s Joint Commission on Public Ethics. The commission barred Mr. Cuomo from using state resources, including help from government employees, to work on it. The Assembly’s inquiry is part of its broader impeachment investigation, the fate of which remains unclear now that Mr. Cuomo has resigned. “As I previously said, any state official who volunteered to assist on this project did so on his or her own time and without the use of state resources,” Richard Azzopardi, a senior adviser to Mr. Cuomo, said in an email. “To the extent a document was printed, it was incidental.”
He should be thrown out of office for murdering all those old people, and thrown in jail for juking the numbers.
It's funny because if I was Kamala rn, I'd want Cuomo as a stalking horse to crowd out attention from other promising candidates (who might actually possess real charisma and relatable ideals).
it must be terribly disappointing to see Cuomo do the right thing and step down. He robbed republicans of weeks of good news cycle, rightly hammering him for staying in office. now youre stuck with posting this stupidity.
I wanna run this back to say that, had Cuomo been in danger of being replaced by a Republican, he would almost certainly have not left office, and would have had the media and the party apparatus running cover for him. Justin Fairfax comes to mind. #Metoo is all fun and games for Democrats until it threatens to cost them a seat.
Bob Menendez got out of a Federal grand jury probe for corruption (with a metric ****ton of damning evidence) and possible impeachment because NJ had a Republican governor. I mean yeah, he got free because the laws against corrupt senators is 1ply toilet paper thin, but there wasn't any campaign to get him to step down. Won re-election the year when charges were dropped. He's now one of the loudest voices for the Democrat platform...
so now we’re running hypothetical grievances about what the dirty Dems would have done in this alternate universe. meanwhile, in the actual real world, republicans won’t bother condemning the likes of Marjorie Taylor Green and her space lasers, Rand Paul or Matt Geatz.
Uhh, it's not hypothetical. Analogs to this have actually happened already. Nobody said Republicans weren't a total calamity when it comes to treatment of women, but it's embarrassing watching Democrats act like they're somehow paragons of virtue over Cuomo's resignation. It's important to stay clear headed about the fact Dems are opportunists and cynical actors on this issue and we need them to be better. I'd say the same for Republicans, but they're not really beholden to us and beyond that they seem not to care right down to their very core.
I'm not sure the politics are so clear cut. Yes Cuomo's Lt. Gov is a Democrat but there is an election coming up. Impeachment of a Dem governor even by a Dem House doesn't look good and the NY GOP are likely to exploit that. While the Democrats continue to hold the Governorship for now they are going into next year's election much weaker than if this hadn't happened. Also NY has had Republican governors not that long ago so that party is completely moribund.
I don't really understand your point. Cuomo staying around would only have been more disastrous for the Democrats electorally. It is going to be hilarious if Cuomo's slimeyness ends up causing a repeat of 1994.
I can’t think of examples of Dems doing this in the recent past, but I’m guessing that’s just me blanking because your logic is fairly sound. That said, my mind could use some examples to bank for future reference and discussion. I hate tribalism and hope to avoid engaging in it myself.
I have no value judgment on the cases themselves, but the most recent and visible instances are Justin Fairfax and Joe Biden. Democrats were eerily silent and nonplussed when it came to investigating the claims of sexual malfeasance against them because it was politically dire. In addition to ignoring it when convenient, some people also weaponize it, as was the case where a progressive candidate was kneecapped by establishment Democrats with false accusations of impropriety.
