PHIL REISMAN

Phil Reisman: Cuomo 'liberated' by dad's death

Phil Reisman
preisman@lohud.com
Phil Reisman

Gov. Andrew Cuomo's tribute to his late father was frank and moving, but one thing he said simply did not ring true.

For years the press ruminated about the complex relationship he had with the elder Cuomo, Mario, who served three terms as governor and died on New Year's at the age of 82. Cuomo dismissed the speculation as bunk.

It was "dime store psychoanalysis," he said. "It was all a lot of hooey."

Michael Shnayerson, the author of "The Contender," an unauthorized biography of Andrew Cuomo that is due to be released next month, doesn't buy it.

"Nor does he," Shnayerson told me on the phone. "He doesn't believe that. He knows very well how complicated it was. And people very close to him have told me that it was a lot darker than the Cuomo spin machine wanted you to believe."

At the funeral Mass, Cuomo talked revealingly about how his father's competitive nature was unleashed during intense, one-on-one games of basketball at the State Police gym in Albany. "We had epic battles, he and I. He hated few things as much as a timid opponent on the basketball court because you cheated him of a real contest."

The son said he wasn't intimidated because, as he noted rather pointedly, he was bigger than his father.

Nevertheless, Mario would taunt, make faces and engage in a constant banter "designed to unnerve you."

"He would hit you in places the human body did not have anatomical defenses," Cuomo said. "The issue of calling fouls plagued us."

These contests on the basketball court don't sound particularly fun or friendly — at least not to an outsider. On the contrary, they might be reminiscent of an excruciating scene from the film "The Great Santini," but without Mario actually bouncing the ball against the back of Andrew's head.

Bill O'Shaughnessy, who was Mario Cuomo's friend and confidante, tells a story that illustrates the delicate nature of the Cuomo father-son relationship.

The backdrop to the story is the SAFE Act, the gun-control proposal that the governor eventually succeeded in pushing through the state Legislature to become law, but not without first absorbing a great deal of criticism from Second Amendment advocates.

During the hottest moments of the public debate, Mario told O'Shaughnessy that he wished his son would defend the gun bill by saying, "I would give up 30 points of my personal popularity if it saves the life of one child."

O'Shaughnessy thought that was a great line, and urged Mario to call his son and suggest he use it. He recalled Mario saying, "The most efficient way to ensure that he won't use it is for me to tell him."

Mario sometimes communicated with Andrew through surrogates. Taking the cue, O'Shaughnessy dutifully called the governor and offered the sound bite, as if he had come up with it himself. He was met with silence on the other end of the line.

Finally Andrew spoke: "Have you been talking to my father?"

Then he hung up.

Andrew Cuomo was widely praised for the eulogy he gave his father last week. Some said it was the best speech he ever gave. At times, he seemed to channel, word for word, Mario's famous keynote address at the 1984 Democratic convention, the speech that put him on the short list as a future presidential candidate — an idea he ultimately rejected to the dismay of many admirers, including Andrew.

Shnayerson told me that Mario Cuomo's death and his son's eulogy meant that he had to rewrite the ending of his book. He was lucky to beat a tight deadline.

"The timing is just spooky," he said. "From my own selfish point of view, I'm struck by how this brings the whole story full circle."

And the story's driving theme is obvious. Shnayerson said that the governor was long past the point of being merely his father's son. Nevertheless, he was still somewhat "harnessed" while his father was alive.

"I do believe that he is liberated in a sense by his father's death, while, of course, being enormously saddened," Shnayerson said. "No one is going to deny that it was a loving relationship, but it was complicated. I think he is liberated."

Indeed, the last word in his revised biography is "free."

It remains to be seen what this supposed liberation means politically. The question still lingers: Will Andrew Cuomo run for president? Shnayerson believes he will, if not in 2016 then some other year.

In the meantime, his goal is to make New York a "better state." He said that in front of hundreds of witnesses who gathered in mourning at St. Ignatius Loyola Church in Manhattan.

And he said it to his father.

"On that, you have my word, as your son," he said. "I love you pop and always will."

Reach Phil Reisman at preisman@lohud.com. Twitter: @philreisman.