Predictable Outcomes Dept.

When a politician discovers that he's rhetorically "stepped on his dick," his reaction is guaranteed to be either or both of the following:

• Claim he was misinterpreted (alternately, "taken out of context");
• Counterattack the motives of those he managed to outrage.

Andrew Cuomo, the leftist princeling currently governor of New York, recently donned an imaginary miter and pontificated to "his" state:

You have a schism within the Republican Party. … They’re searching to define their soul, that’s what’s going on. Is the Republican party in this state a moderate party or is it an extreme conservative party? That’s what they’re trying to figure out. It’s a mirror of what’s going on in Washington. The gridlock in Washington is less about Democrats and Republicans. It’s more about extreme Republicans versus moderate Republicans.

…You’re seeing that play out in New York. … The Republican Party candidates are running against the SAFE Act — it was voted for by moderate Republicans who run the Senate! Their problem is not me and the Democrats; their problem is themselves. Who are they? Are they these extreme conservatives who are right-to-life, pro-assault-weapon, anti-gay? Is that who they are? Because if that’s who they are and they’re the extreme conservatives, they have no place in the state of New York, because that’s not who New Yorkers are.

If they’re moderate Republicans like in the Senate right now, who control the Senate — moderate Republicans have a place in their state. George Pataki was governor of this state as a moderate Republican; but not what you’re hearing from them on the far right.”

That looks pretty definite to me. What about you, Gentle Reader? If you're not a New York resident, would Cuomo's remarks as quoted above make you feel that you'd be welcomed here? As for this libertarian-conservative / pro-life / pro-Second Amendment / pro-traditional marriage commentator, well, I'd like to tell you about my reaction, but there are laws about that sort of thing.

Apparently, there was more backblast than Cuomo expected. Quite a lot of it arrived as comments to the cited article and others that covered the governor's edict of disdain. But as Doug Ross has noted, the Right gave him both barrels, from:

• The New York Post;
• Opposing Views;
• National Review Online;
• LifeNews;
• and The Blaze;

...among others, and Cuomo decided he had to back away from the clear meaning of his words, while laying down a verbal claymore for his foes:

Gov. Andrew Cuomo's administration penned an open letter to The New York Post on Sunday, two days after the governor's comments on "extreme Republicans" were heavily criticized by conservatives... The letter -- posted to the governor's website Sunday afternoon -- claims the Post "distorted Governor Cuomo's words" by claiming Cuomo told conservative Republicans to "leave New York."

..."When you listen to the complete interview, it is clear that the Governor was engaged in a discussion on political campaigns and responding to a question about fundraising for his own campaign," the letter reads. "He was talking strictly about the two parties and political candidates, and making an observation that far right candidates cannot win statewide elections in the New York because their political philosophy is not a reflection of the state’s electorate."

"Far right!" The pejorative the Left applies to Americans who believe that the Constitution means what its text says, rather than what some overfed blowhard with no achievements outside of politics thinks it means. The denigration it applies to Americans who cherish human life and want to see it protected by the law. The sneer it awards to Americans who value the nation's tradition of citizen armament, and the control that tradition enforces upon the ambitions and actions of...why, of men like Andrew Cuomo.

Politicians like Cuomo and his unlamented father are a New York disease. They, like predators of all types and times, positioned themselves where the prey is fattest. In state politics, the prime hunting grounds are where they've always been: California, Illinois, and New York. The concentration of left-liberals and government dependents in the immense cities that dominate those states gives panderer-tyrants like Cuomo an edge that makes them very difficult to defeat.

There will shortly be an exodus from New York. We who are at or near retirement age are highly unlikely to remain in this vulpine state for our final years. We'll take our pensions and savings to some state friendlier to their retention. Our offspring, except for those who secure themselves a job in state government or one of its outcroppings, are highly likely to choose a locale less financially rapacious, regulation-strangled, and gun-hostile than New York as the place to develop their careers.

It's already happened to California. New York is only a little behind the crest of the wave. Remember that you read it here first.