Cuomo Out!

The things you miss when you take a walk on the beach: Another torpedo circles back and attacks the fleet that loosed it. From Stacy McCain: CUOMO ANNOUNCES RESIGNATION

Wow! This just happened on live TV without any forewarning. First, the lawyer for New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo did a long defense presentation criticizing the investigation of him, and then the governor came on with a statement that began with him sounding like he was preparing to dig in and hold onto office. So I turned the sound down and went back to work, but then my brother Kirby walked in and looked at my office TV and said, “Cuomo resigns.” What the hell?

UPDATE: Brittany Bernstein reports at National Review:

Governor Andrew Cuomo announced his resignation Tuesday, saying he would like to spare New Yorkers the distraction of a protracted impeachment inquiry.
“I work for you and doing the right thing is doing the right thing for you because as we say, it’s not about me, it’s about we,” Cuomo said in a televised address, adding that his resignation would be effective in two weeks.
He said that fighting back against the “politically motivated” attack on him would throw New York into months of turmoil and “I cannot be the cause of that.”
“The best way I can help now is if I step aside and let government get back to government,” the 63-year-old three-term governor said.
Lt. Governor Kathy Hochul will become the state’s first female governor.
“I agree with Governor Cuomo’s decision to step down. It is the right thing to do and in the best interest of New Yorkers,” tweeted 62-year-old Hochul, who previously served as a member of Congress.
Ahead of his resignation on Tuesday, Cuomo said he takes “fully responsibility” for his actions, though he continued to defend himself, saying he had “never crossed the line with anyone.”
“I have slipped and called people ‘honey, ’sweetheart’ and ‘darling.’ I mean it to be endearing but women found it dated and offensive,” he said. “I take full responsibility for my actions. I have been too familiar with people. My sense of humor can be insensitive and off-putting.”
“In my mind, I’ve never crossed the line with anyone but I didn’t realize the extent to which the line has been redrawn,” Cuomo added. “There are generational and cultural shifts that I just didn’t fully appreciate and I should have — no excuses.”

(Hat-tip: Ed Driscoll at Instapundit.) Most guys our age — I’m a couple of years younger than Cuomo — could actually sympathize if (and it’s a big “if,” so big as to be a farfetched speculation) all Cuomo did was make jokes or behave in ways that could be politely deemed “flirtatious.”

Once upon a time, perhaps as recently as 20 or 25 years ago, men and women were allowed to joke around in the workplace in ways that now seem to be automatically construed as “harassment” — at least when men do it. I suppose women are still allowed to joke around, but apparently an “insensitive” joke is now grounds for immediate termination, if a guy does it. It’s been a dozen years since I had a regular office job, so my understanding of workplace protocol may be obsolete, but judging from news coverage of “harassment” in the #MeToo era, any young man would be best advised never to speak to any woman in the office, if he could possibly avoid it, and certainly no man should ever make a joke at work, if a woman is within earshot. Be a serious as a 17th-century Puritan in Salem — that’s the only way for a man to survive the contemporary workplace climate. Keep your mouth shut and never make eye contact with a woman at the office. Strive to be invisible.

I certainly expected this morality play to take longer to conclude, but I was fine with the outcome however it came it. It's New York's problem. They vote poorly.