Dorothy weeps

“You find out who your real friends are when you're involved in a scandal.”

—Elizabeth Taylor

 

By Alex P. Vidal

 

TWO “breaking” news greeted me as I entered Dorothy’s house August 10 noontime in Brooklyn.

The first, not really earthshaking because it’s only me who was actually astounded, was about Errol Spence Jr’s withdrawal from the unified welterweight tussle against Senator Emmanuel “Manny” Pacquiao in Las Vegas on August 21; and second, embattled New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s resignation, which will take effect after 14 days.

Since most people in the Philippines were already sleeping, I only shared the information about Spence’s exit to selected friends who had followed the Pacquiao-Spence fracas since day one through the Messenger.

As for the Cuomo l'affaire, it was all over the mainstream and social media; the flamboyant governor, accused of sexually harassing 11 women, spoke “live” from the capitol in Albany.

News nowadays travels via satellite across the globe and reaches the farthest enclaves from north to south and east and west like a bullet. 

I could have broadcast the exclusive “double whammies” if I were a full-bore media network correspondent.   

I was inside Dorothy’s house to perform an errand for the day.

 

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A nitpicking political acolyte, Dorothy, 80, wept when she saw a screaming “Cuomo resigns” clip in one news segment.

“Oh no,” she loudly bemoaned. “I thought he would only apologize and fight.”

She added: “He is a fighter, and I thought after apologizing in this press conference we will move on and continue with the programs that would improve the lives of New Yorkers and fight the pandemic.” 

“We have more important things to do and problems to solve and this governor has been doing an amazing job even before and during the pandemic. This crazy political wrangling must stop. New York move on!”

Dorothy admires Cuomo, who had vaccilated between defiant and defeated before finally realizing he was up against a formidable political army that wanted him out as soon as the report from the Attorney General’s office came out accusing him of sexually harassing the 11 female state employees.

“Have you seen some of the 11 women who accused (Governor) Cuomo of sexual misconduct?” asked Dorothy. “They were all gorgeous. But why didn’t the state hire ugly women? Why did those accusers use their beauty in order to get employment?”

Fuming like a carnival sentinel, Dorothy furthered rued: “I haven’t seen desirable ladies who didn’t use their beauties to gain something.”

 

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Spence, 31, is officially out of the blockbuster card on August 21 after doctors reportedly found a torn retina in his eye during a pre-fight medical examination.

Yordenis Ugas, 35, the man who will replace him in the 12-round world welterweight championship currently holds the WBA 147 kg crown and represented Cuba in the lightweight division during the 2008 Beijing Olympics where he pocketed a bronze medal.

Ugas, who stands five feet and nine inches, reminds of the lanky but vulnerable Milton McCrory, a welterweight phenom in the 80’s who was blasted into smithereens by the deadly Don “Cobra” Curry also in a WBA, IBF, WBC welterweight unification bout.

I consider the McCrory versus Curry fisticuffs held in Las Vegas on December 6, 1985 to be one of the greatest and the most suspense-filled welterweight rumbles in history.

Curry flattened the once indestructible McCrory in only two rounds with a smashing left hook to the face.

I hope Ugas, who wasn’t yet born at that time, has seen the fight on video.

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two dailies in Iloilo)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cuomo and the Iloilo solon who impregnated his cousin

“Nope, no sex scandals yet. But I am open to offers!”

—John Cusack

 

By Alex P. Vidal 

 

HE sexually harassed 11 women, according to a New York State Attorney General’s report, and thus Governor Andrew Cuomo’s goose is cooked.

If he were a Filipino politician, there would have been no demand for Italian-American Cuomo to step down even if all the lurid details of his alleged sexual peccadillos have been shockingly unleashed in public by no less than his former aide, the intrepid Attorney General Leticia James.

Filipinos aren’t allergic of macho leaders or elected officials who are openly womanizers as long as they are “quality” public servants.

If they can place a madman into the highest office, the Filipino voters can also make any playboy politician president.

Former Philippine President Joseph “Erap” Estrada, accused of cavorting with a married flight stewardess and maintaining illicit affairs with multiple women, and the former Iloilo congressman who impregnated his socialite cousin did worse.

But they weren’t removed from office. 

Some of them were even “rewarded” with reelection as if they didn’t put a stain in their stint as “honorable” public officials.

Erap succumbed in the farcical EDSA II “revolt” for corruption, not for siring illegitimate children with different women, showbiz and non-showbiz.

 

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The Iloilo solon who junked his wife (some nosy society columnists claimed it was the wife who dumped him) for being allegedly afflicted with hypoactive sexual desire disorder (HSDD), was even reelected.

HSDD, the wife’s “sin”, is a type of mental and physical sexual dysfunction in which women lack motivation or lose desire to have sex for an extended period of time, causing significant levels of personal distress— an integral part of an HSDD diagnosis, doctors said.

Demure and highly educated, the wife continued to support the philandering husband’s political career, which nosedived eventually.

The cousin, who later died of breast cancer, didn’t even complain. 

She and the Iloilo solon had been having a tryst even before he was elected. Let’s reserve this gripping episode for the gossip columnists. 

Unlike what happened to Cuomo, the Iloilo solon’s political supporters didn’t abandon him and the solon’s political opponents didn’t even raise the “scandal” during the campaign.

Erap, the Iloilo solon, and a host of other sexually hyperactive Filipino politicians don’t scare the electorate, at least in the Philippines.

Cuomo had the misfortune of “committing” the sexual transgressions in the culture of American politics known for its colossal overreactions to sexual misconduct in public office (Bill Clinton was nearly canned for his misadventure with Monica Lewinsky, etcetera).

 

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Cuomo, once touted to be future US president, is in a real shit, to say the least. 

Calls for his resignation were at fever-pitch as of this writing.

Even President Joseph Biden and all the state Democratic Party behemoths have publicly called for him to step down. 

The only one who seems to be unaware of the desperate state of affairs is Cuomo, who disputed the allegations against him and cried political harassment.

Aides close to Cuomo reportedly claimed he was pushing for a press conference to refute Attorney General James’s report in further detail, though it’s unclear if and when that plan will come to fruition as they try to talk him down.

Cuomo’s initial response August 3 was a 14-minute, pre-taped video in which he said he and his family have experienced a hard and painful past few months, but he’d like to share his side of the story.

The governor insisted  his words and actions were misinterpreted by the attorney general, the investigators and the women who reported them. 

Cuomo said he talked with Charlotte Bennett, a sexual assault survivor, about her sex life because he was so moved by her personal story.

He insisted the hugs and kisses reported by former aides were largely representative of how he greets people as an Italian American politician, as photos of him publicly embracing other politicians and constituents flashed on the screen.

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two dailies in Iloilo)