Call him "Quid Pro Cuomo," or "Status Cuomo," the governor still rules over the hapless mayor

There's a lot of tasty stuff in Nick Paumgarten's 10/12/20 New Yorker profile Andrew Cuomo, the King of New York, so I encourage you to read it all.

The subheading is "The Governor has been widely praised for his response to COVID. But his critics see a would-be authoritarian obsessed with settling scores." Indeed, there's evidence, though the people speaking on the record are cautious--or dead:

In some ways, the occasion was perfect for Cuomo. “He’s inclined toward tyranny,” a Democratic legislator told me. “But in a crisis that’s what people want. Someone who can exert command and control. This situation is tailor-made for a tactician of his abilities.” An advocate for government could deploy its considerable capabilities without having to put up with its usual difficulties, which we sometimes call politics. But you can no more repress politics than you can feelings.

...Monica Klein, a progressive strategist, told me that shortly before Richard Brodsky, the fourteen-term Westchester County assemblyman known as “Albany’s conscience,” died, in April, “the last thing he yelled at me was ‘You need to tell everyone that Andrew Cuomo is an authoritarian!’ ”

Two nicknames

Progressives call him "Quid Pro Cuomo," while others have dubbed him Status Cuomo. The article describes his deft deployment--and discarding--of the Working Families Party:

In his own party, his detractors often speak of him (almost always without attribution, because they are afraid of him) as a brutal boss, a friendless bully, and a paranoid control freak. “It’s not enough for him to win. Other people have to lose,” one said, having lost. Yet there are often caveats. “And by the way,” another told me, after carpet-bombing my notebook with slurs, “he may go down as, if not the greatest, then the most accomplished governor New York has ever had.”

Cuomo the builder

Writes Paumgarten, "What thrills Cuomo most, to go by his reputation and the evidence, is building things—the kind of big infrastructure projects that might vex more deferential executives. The Second Avenue subway, a new LaGuardia Airport, an expansion of Pennsylvania Station, a replacement for the Tappan Zee Bridge, which he named for his father."

That explains why likes makes announcements about the new UBS Arena at Belmont Park. And why his administration keeps giving the green light to Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park.

Cuomo vs. de Blasio

The article describes the conflict between governor and mayor, with Cuomo as Machiavellian manipulator:

Still, it’s hard to find anyone who knows the two men who doesn’t conclude that one of the reasons Cuomo lagged some of his peers was that he was just doing what he has often done: begrudging de Blasio any political oxygen. Cuomo didn’t want to be the one holding the coat. New Yorkers have come to think of these spats as a feud, but for the most part they have been sustained by Cuomo. De Blasio has done himself few favors, however; he is a master of the unforced error. 

Further piling on, Paumgarten describes "Cuomo, by most accounts, is a samurai, whereas de Blasio is a schlimazel." Also, "They fell back into their designated roles: Cuomo the bully, de Blasio the bleeder."

Oof.