THE NEW YOUNG MAYOR, HE AIN'T WHAT THEY USED TO BE

The right-wing nightmare: a Muslim guy, two
women, and New York City.

A couple of weeks ago, I turned on the TV and what to my wondering eyes did appear was Zohran Mamdani making a statement at the site of the 1964 World's Fair in Queens.

It had been so long since the election -- three days? -- that I suddenly remembered, Oh yeah, this is going to be our next Mayor. 

Mamdani had shaken up the political word, the Democrat establishment, and -- best of all -- Mario Cuomo by winning the second-hardest job in the world (after President of the United States or, in the current admiration's case, the President's spokesperson explaining why it was OK for her boss to call a female reporter "Piggy"). 

The next time Mayor-Elect Mamdani appeared on my TV screen was when he was in the Oval Office standing next to the (literally) sitting president. Trump was remarkably affable, far different from the late-night social media-scribbling madman we usually know him as. He was funny in his own way, as he was when David Letterman dropped into see him unannounced at Trump Tower three decades ago.

Mamdani looks down on Trump.

Mamdani, on the other hand, appeared determined to prove that he was up for both the job of Mayor and holding his own with the Big Mouth-in-Chief. It was gratifying seeing this 34-year-old Ugandan-born, Socialist Muslim winning the office Maro Cuomo so ravingly, knavingly, cravenly craved. 

It's easy to picture the former Governor thinking back on what he should have done. Maybe a return to the time he created his father's unofficial campaign slogan against Ed Koch, VOTE FOR CUOMO, NOT THE HOMO. Targeting Zohran's beard, VOTE FOR MARIO, NOT THE HAIRY-O would have had the classic Cuomo wit. 

Are they sure it wasn't paid by Ted Cruz?

Stupid? No more than deliberately mispronouncing Mamdani's name every
chance he had, or the way his campaign briefly released an apocalyptic ad predicting a Mamdani administration would be the dream of pushers, pimps, drunk drivers, and wife-beaters (the men, not the undershirts). And it was AI-generated! Damn you for putting so many hungry New York actors out of work!

Going forward, then, Mario Cuomo will be known not just as the former Governor of New York forced to resign over sexual harassment claims, or the loser of both the New York' Mayoral primary as a Democrat and the election as an independent, but the guy who made Curtis Sliwa appear Churchillian. Possible next move: cohosting his dopey brother's basement podcast. WATCH THE CUOMOS, NOT MARIA BARTIROMO!

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