Mario Cuomo

The first time I ever laid eyes on Mario Cuomo in the flesh was on the evening of July 16, 1984, in the Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco. Relatively obscure in the national arena, he was designated keynote speaker of the Democratic Convention.I was on the floor, plying my scrivener's trade, standing by the Michigan delegation, which contained some of America's toughest, most unsentimental practitioners of the business of politics.Mr. Cuomo rose to the lectern. He was not imposing.

You can fight "City Hall." It's easy. Just don't go.The Al Pacino movie is long on histrionics, rich in detail, provocative in theme, but ultimately comes to nothing because it doesn't make its argument with enough rigor. It concedes too early.Pacino plays His Honor John Pappas, mayor of the great, shaggy, ungovernable and pathological city 200-odd miles to the Northeast, a gifted politician who is equal parts Mario Cuomo (the fabled eloquence), Fiorello LaGuardia (the squawky feistiness)

Washington -- AS FOUR YEARS AGO Mario Cuomo used to argue that he couldn't take himself entirely out of the presidential speculation because it would be arrogant and presumptuous on his part to declare, like General Sherman, that he would neither run nor serve. This time Cuomo keeps saying he has " no plans to make plans" to seek the presidency.A different shtick but the same results: The New York governor singlehandedly snarls the competition for the Democratic presidential nomination.Cuomo argues in his usual forceful and combative style that he should be able to discuss national problems without having everything he says cast in terms of speculation on a presidential campaign.

The first time I ever laid eyes on Mario Cuomo in the flesh was on the evening of July 16, 1984, in the Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco. Relatively obscure in the national arena, he was designated keynote speaker of the Democratic Convention.I was on the floor, plying my scrivener's trade, standing by the Michigan delegation, which contained some of America's toughest, most unsentimental practitioners of the business of politics.Mr. Cuomo rose to the lectern. He was not imposing.

FOR NEARLY an hour here the other day before a U.S. mayors' conference, New York's Gov. Mario Cuomo delivered a spellbinding indictment of the Bush administration for dumping national responsibilities on the states and cities.He complained of "the fend-for-yourself-federists" who under the label of "The New Federalism" were forcing mayors and governors to pick up costly programs and raise the taxes locally to pay for them.Cuomo decried an administration policy of "twin redistribution" that "passed the buck to the states and cities" and at the same time "reduced taxes on the wealthiest people by increasing taxes on the poor and middle class."

MARIO CUOMO gave George Bush this advice, after his vomitingspell: "Whatever you ate, stay away from that."2 Saturday: The strange book of Gaston B. Means.

They are using machine guns to decide who runs Georgia. Don't worry, it's the other Georgia.Mario Cuomo gave George Bush everything he wanted for Christmas.

The jokers who wrote-in Mickey Mouse on the absentee ballots determined the outcome.Voters turned against big government everywhere except Baltimore County, where they threw out small government.The electorate determined that Marion Barry had found redemption and that Mario Cuomo hadn't.

TIS THE season for negative political ads on television. Saturday Night Live's Al Franken satirized the practice last weekend.A "Mitt Romney ad" opens with a very unflattering picture of Sen. Ted Kennedy, camera slowly zooming in on Kennedy's face, ending with an extreme close-up of his eyes and nose as the narrator says:"On October 14th, 1978 Ted Kennedy is seen puking in the parking lot of the U.S. Capitol. On February 8th, 1983 Kennedy relieves himself on the leg of a Georgetown waitress.

By a significant plurality, callers to SUNDIAL think the eventual Democratic presidential nominee will be one who has not announced his candidacy, Mario Cuomo. Out of 270 calls, the New York governor polled 110, or 40.7 percent.Totals for the six announced hopefuls are, in order: Sen. Bob Kerrey of Nebraska, 51 votes (18.8 percent); Sen. Tom Harkin of Iowa, 30 (11.1 percent); Gov. L. Douglas Wilder of Virginia, 26 (9.6 percent); Gov. Edmund G. "Jerry" Brown Jr. of California, 23 (8.5 percent)

"IT'S INEVITABLE that when defeated Gov. Mario Cuomo of New York speaks at the National Press Club here on Friday, he'll be asked whether he's going to run for president in 1996." -- Jack Germond & Jules Witcover, The Sun, Dec. 13.Earth to National Press Club, Earth to National Press Club, we're losing you. Over. Over? Oh, no! It's finally happened! The Washington punditocracy has left orbit and is lost in space!How can anybody ask Mario Cuomo, with a straight face, if he is thinking of running for president in 1996?

WASHINGTON -- President Clinton's political stock is so low right now that it's inevitable that when defeated Gov. Mario Cuomo of New York speaks at the National Press Club here on Friday, he'll be asked whether he's going to run for president in 1996.Although Cuomo's own stock has also gone south after his loss to Republican George Pataki in his try for a fourth term, he remains one of the most articulate and thoughtful Democratic leaders -- a fact that survives his unvarnished identification as a liberal in these days when "liberal" seems to be such a dirty word.

THE TALKING HEADS can argue about whether it was a vote against the president, against the party, against liberalism, about whether it was the revenge of the white male voter or the reaction of the middle class.And the Republican pols can spout pieties about working together for the American people while Newt Gingrich goes straight for the neck flesh, calling names, talking trash, practicing his patented brand of "I'm-OK-You're-Scum" attack politics.But one thing I know for sure, looking back on this election.

The jokers who wrote-in Mickey Mouse on the absentee ballots determined the outcome.Voters turned against big government everywhere except Baltimore County, where they threw out small government.The electorate determined that Marion Barry had found redemption and that Mario Cuomo hadn't.

REPUBLICAN PARTY loyalty has just been dramatically tested from coast to coast.In New York's grudge fight, a Republican mayor jumped ship to save a sinking Democratic governor; that was flat-out party disloyalty. Contrariwise, in California, a GOP presidential hopeful disagreed with a Republican governor on principle: that was in the zestiest tradition of fighting for a party's soul.New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, a '70s Democrat who turned Republican in the '80s, made another turn in the '90s to support the last true-believer Democrat, Gov. Mario Cuomo, who is losing.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Theodore Roosevelt. I thought of TR this week amid all the flap over New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani's endorsement of Gov. Mario Cuomo's bid for re-election.Mario's a Democrat. Rudy's a Republican, and many Republicans say his traitorous act will end his hopes of higher office.Hahahahahaha! Hopes of higher office! Hahahaha! No New York City mayor in this century has been elected to higher office! Not senator, not governor, not vice president, certainly not president.Teddy Roosevelt, like Giuliani, was born in New York City (in the family brownstone at 28 East 20th St., trivia fans)

After months of equivocation Mario Cuomo at long last says he won't run for president. This announcement no doubt brought a great sigh of relief in the Bush White House.Like Ronald Reagan, albeit in a very different way, Mario Cuomo is a made-for-TV candidate in a time in which perception often overwhelms reality. And as a television-age candidate, Cuomo is an incandescent personality who throws off 1,000 watts while George Bush is a whiney personality who throws off about as much wattage as a small Christmas candle.

DEMOCRATS who think Mario Cuomo is the candidate they have been waiting for to take back the White House are in for a real surprise. Cuomo offers voters the same thing GeorgeMcGovern, Walter Mondale and Michael Dukakis offered them: warmed-over New Deal liberalism, albeit in a more attractive package. In fact, Cuomo may be the weakest Democrat the party could field.Granted, the New York governor is probably the most oratorically gifted politician in either party today. He is talented, cunning, fearless and has stature.

TIS THE season for negative political ads on television. Saturday Night Live's Al Franken satirized the practice last weekend.A "Mitt Romney ad" opens with a very unflattering picture of Sen. Ted Kennedy, camera slowly zooming in on Kennedy's face, ending with an extreme close-up of his eyes and nose as the narrator says:"On October 14th, 1978 Ted Kennedy is seen puking in the parking lot of the U.S. Capitol. On February 8th, 1983 Kennedy relieves himself on the leg of a Georgetown waitress.

President Clinton's State of the Union remarks on crime sound familiar? They should. In his New York State of the State address this month, Democratic Gov. Mario Cuomo, who is running for re-election, sounded so conservative on crime (also on welfare and taxes) that the Republican leader in the New York Senate said, "It sounds like a speech that could have been written for me." New York City's new Republican mayor, former crime-buster Rudolph Giuliani, said he could conceivably endorse Governor Cuomo.