Everyone remembers former Governor of New York Mario Cuomo's famed speech at the 1984 Democratic Convention. Even me (and I was 5).  In it he said:  "President Reagan told us from the very beginning that he believed in a kind of social Darwinism. Survival of the fittest. `Government can't do everything,' we were told, so it should settle for taking care of the strong and hope that economic ambition and charity will do the rest. Make the rich richer, and what falls from the table will be enough for the middle class and those who are trying desperately to work their way into the middle class."

The speech could have just as easily been delivered in 2007 as 1984. So as the country plunges into another Presidential election cycle, Governor Cuomo, a practitioner and one of the left's most eloquent voices, once again asks to candidates to step back and examine their governing philosophy and the challenges the country faces, arguing that pat answers and rhetoric are insufficient to address them.

To quote Don Corleone – “How did things ever get so far?” That’s the question regarding Albany’s latest fiasco involving Joe Bruno’s political travel at state taxpayers’ expense. The answer to the question and the festering problem is this, a specially created independent commission.

Another commission? Are you kidding? Albany needs another commission like a hole in the head. All too true, however, the four potential investigations into “...gate” (supply your own moniker – i.e., Trooper, Spitzer, Bruno, Travel, etc.) have shown that no one in Albany is interested in getting at the truth or moving onto substantive issues of policy.

As foreshadowed two weeks ago, Joe Bruno and his Republican cronies together with entrenched Democratic insiders are using these “sideshows” to avoid the important policy issues that the Governor intended to address when he took office seven months ago. As a result, the public is left with wheel spinning and obsessing about who had subpoena power and when – classic Albany obfuscation.

The dog days of August are not here yet, but it appears that the Governor could use a tall cool glass of lemonade to cure what ails him. The recently released report from Attorney General Andrew Cuomo criticizing the actions of the Governor’s office, regarding allegations that State Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno improperly used state aircraft and other transportation in furtherance of political fundraising activities, adds another headache (“lemon”) to the list for the freshman year of the recently elected chief executive.

This, on top of the ongoing public feud between Gov. Spitzer, Senator Bruno and Senate Republicans that has been characterized in the press as something akin to an elementary school yard name calling contest, does not help in terms of “moving the ball forward” with respect to the Governor’s reform and policy agenda.

(Note: A primer on Clean Money, Clean Elections (CMCE) system of virtually full public financing of elections is available on my website. Additional info is available on the Citizen Action NY website.) I'll be posting more info on CMCE on this site later. Meanwhile...

In Governor Spitzer's first State of the State address, he said that, "Full public financing must be the ultimate goal of our [campaign finance] reform effort." He is currently working to draft a CMCE bill, but time's a-wasting.

Remember, Governor Spitzer is a friend on this issue. The problem is that there are only eight weeks left in the legislative session. If we are to get action on CMCE this year, we need a bill to act on ASAP. You can contact the Governor's office, asking him to finish the bill and submit it to the Assembly as soon as possible. If enough people show their support for CMCE, we have a much better chance to getting action this year.

The Governor's office number is 518-474-8390.