Phil Reisman: Cuomo's 'All Things Possible' leaves things out
Gov. Andrew Cuomo's long-awaited political memoir has finally hit the stores, and I got my copy on Wednesday.
No one is likely to read this 513-page book, except the governor's closest friends and relatives.
Everyone else will skim the index. They will anxiously look for their names and, if they find what they're looking for, they will thumb to the appropriate page and dog-ear it for posterity. Otherwise, they will use the book as a doorjamb.
Political autobiographies written at mid-career are self-serving, sanitized tracts that are carefully constructed to position the author for a run at the presidency or, if that fails, an audition as a host on a cable-TV network. This one is true to the traditional form and format, but that's just the nature of the beast. Anyway, it's better than most books of this sort, whose indexes I have skimmed.
The book's main title is "All Things Possible," but the subtitle could be: "And Some Things Left Out."
Left out is any hint that a 2014 gubernatorial race is going on. Nor is there the faintest mention of Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino. The opposition has been rendered invisible.
Cuomo is expected to win re-election, but his exclusion of any reference to the bitter and increasingly contentious campaign sends an unsettling message: We must accept his primacy.
Oh wait, he does say on page 490 that "I am now in the midst of my reelection campaign." But Astorino has been erased from the world according to Cuomo, which is consistent with the governor's strategy to minimize or ignore the existence of his opponents — whether they come from the left or right. He doesn't debate them without severe restrictions, and he looks right through them at parades.
By the way, he does bring up Carl Paladino from the 2010 election. The novelty candidate Jimmy "The Rent Is Too Damn High" McMillan also makes a cameo. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio receives a slight nod and so does actor Robert De Niro on page 462.
David Letterman is on page 148. Shakespeare is trotted out on page 178. Jay-Z shows up on page 227. But Zephyr Teachout? Fuggedaboutit!
Deep into the book, Cuomo makes a brief pass at fighting political corruption. But you won't find the Moreland Commission in the index. The commission, which Cuomo personally created, was investigating crooked behavior in the state capital when the governor abruptly shut it down. The New York Times interviewed some key commission figures who said that Cuomo aides directly interfered with the commission's work.
One of the alleged meddlers mentioned in the Times story was Larry Schwartz of White Plains, who has been a nonpareil hatchet man going back to the days when he served as Andy Spano's surrogate brain in the Westchester county executive's office.
In his acknowledgements, Cuomo praises Schwartz as the guy who "runs the ship. I have known him for thirty years, and he is as skilled a government and management professional as I have seen."
I'll say.
Cuomo extolls the building of the new Tappan Zee Bridge. The word "extolls" reminds me of tolls, which is what most bridge commuters want to know about. How much will the tolls be raised to pay for the construction of the new bridge?
The governor won't touch the question with a Left Coast Lifter. He merely says, "We have forty years to pay back the money, which we will do through toll collection."
Hold onto your wallets.
Conventional book reviews are covering the basics of this book — his failed marriage to Kerry Kennedy, his complicated relationship with his father, the former governor and so on. It's all there. Google the reviews or buy the book, if you want that stuff.
Full disclosure: In a section on his gun control bill, the SAFE Act, Cuomo talks about this newspaper's controversial publication last year of the names of local handgun permit holders, which were obtained through a Freedom of Information Law request.
He doesn't place a value judgment on the decision to publish the information, but he does take a jab at the Republicans in the state Senate, who "pushed to make information about permit holders less accessible. One of their negotiating points was an allowance for New York gun owners to maintain their privacy on request."
Cuomo is now embarking on a book-signing tour. It's a tossup whether the book buyers will outnumber his small brigade of bodyguards.
Cuomo's book is better than Hillary Clinton's. The cover says it costs $29.99, which is a hilarious price. (Schwartz must have dreamed that one up.) But even if he doesn't sell many copies, he's already been paid a substantial sum in upfront money, reportedly more than $700,000.
So Cuomo is ahead of the game. To paraphrase the 18th-century man of letters, Dr. Samuel Johnson, only a fool would write for nothing.
Reach Phil Reisman at preisman@lohud.com. Twitter: @philreisman