No Longer Any Need To Ask Who's More Corrupt, Cuomo Or Christie

When it comes to brazen public corruption there aren't many governors that hold a candle to Andrew Cuomo (D-NY) and Chris Christie (R-NJ), who, conveniently, scheme together on behalf of the same wealthy donor class who fund their miserable, shameful careers. Over the weekend, Jess McKinley's piece in the NY Times, Cuomo and Christie, Defying Legislatures, Reject Bill to Overhaul Port Authority, generated a lot of buzz... at least for a Christmas weekend news story. The two corrupt governors acted in tandem on Saturday to veto unanimous votes of both their state legislatures "aimed at curbing political interference and patronage at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, more than a year after lane closings at the George Washington Bridge set off a scandal that looms over the agency to this day." McKinley felt he had to remind his readers that Cuomo is "a Democrat" when he mentioned how he had announced the veto just hours before a midnight deadline and in the face of almost-unheard-of bipartisan support.

Because the authority is governed by both New York and New Jersey, approval is needed by both Legislatures to make changes in its structure and operations. On Saturday night, the anger over the governors’ rejection of the bill was felt on both sides of the Hudson River.

“It’s appalling and disappointing,” said Assemblywoman Valerie Vainieri Huttle, a Democrat of Bergen County, N.J., who sponsored the bill in Trenton, adding: “The Legislatures of New Jersey and New York crossed party lines to pass Port Authority reform. The governors crossed party lines to obstruct it.”

The veto came as prosecutors continue to investigate the politically motivated lane closings at the bridge last year, a scandal that marred the reputation of Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey as a rising star in the Republican Party. A bistate agency whose commissioners and top staff members are appointed by the two governors, the authority has vast transportation responsibilities, including several of the region’s airports and major bridges.

But it has also faced withering ethical questions over its reputation for rewarding politically connected officials with patronage jobs and allies with lucrative contracts.

The legislation vetoed on Saturday would have remade the authority’s daily operations, providing a raft of new financial, ethical and administrative rules, including opening all of its meetings to the public and asking its 12 commissioners to acknowledge that they have a “fiduciary duty” to the Port Authority.

The 93-year-old agency has been the target of reformers in the past, who say it lacks essential accountability and needs more public scrutiny. With nearly 7,000 employees and powers over airports, tunnels and real estate, the authority has a budget of $7.8 billion for 2015.

...[S]upporters, who had hoped the unanimous votes in the states’ Legislatures would convince the governors to accept the changes, said the authority had lagged behind many other New York entities in accepting somewhat commonplace ethical standards.

"It is a cynical thing that they would announce their own panel’s reforms while simultaneously vetoing a proposed law that would simply apply existing ethical standards,” said Assemblyman James F. Brennan of Brooklyn, a sponsor of the bill.

In recent days, backers of the legislation had become increasingly nervous about it as dual deadlines for Mr. Cuomo, who had to act by Sunday morning, and Mr. Christie approached and neither man showed enthusiasm for the bills. But the veto struck even veterans of Albany politics as exceedingly opaque.

Dick Dadey, the executive director of Citizens Union, a government watchdog group, called the veto “the Saturday night massacre of reform.”

The decision to veto comes as both Mr. Cuomo and Mr. Christie face lingering federal inquiries. Mr. Christie is still being investigated regarding the lane closings, while Mr. Cuomo is facing federal scrutiny over his sudden dismantling of the Moreland Commission, a state ethics panel, in March.

On Saturday, critics said the veto could haunt both men. “Real reform gets buried on Christmas weekend,” said Richard L. Brodsky, a former Democratic assemblyman from Westchester County who has long been a critic of the Port Authority’s governance. “Scandal gets talked about forever.”

Maybe they're counting on Republicans nominating Christie for president, him beating Clinton and pardoning Cuomo when he's in prison or maybe they're counting on Cuomo winning the Democratic nomination someday and becoming president and pardoning Christie when he's in prison. Who knows how these criminal minds work? And who cares? What I do care about is that both these crooks were elected governor over far more qualified and ethical alternatives and it would be more interesting to know how the collective consciousness of the New York and New Jersey electorate works.