ANDREW CUOMO SAYS ABOUT PATAKI
"I WISH SOMEBODY WOULD PUT A CAP IN HIS ASS"

UTICA, NY- In the 2002 New York Gubernatorial Democratic primary, a controversial incident occurred aboard the Andrew Cuomo "Truth Express" campaign train between the candidate and news reporters. As the train pulled into Utica Monday morning, Mr. Cuomo noticed a PATAKI NOW campaign poster nailed to a telephone pole alongside the tracks.
According to A.P. reporter John Diggler, who has been covering the primary from the beginning, the candidate, "stared out the window with an intense focus. He took a sip from his glass that contained an unidentified brown liquid and uttered ‘I wish somebody would just put a cap in his ass.’ I was of course completely stunned by the comment so I said the only thing I could think of which was excuse me.
Cuomo turned from the window with a boyish smirk on his face and just giggled passing off the remark as an attempt at being funny."
The verbal blunders did not end there. When another beat reporter brought up the name Carl McCall he could not finish his question.
"I was about to ask Mr. Cuomo about McCall’s prescription drug plan," recalls Bill Billingsly political reporter for the Albany Herald, "when all of a sudden he stops me in mid sentence, looks me straight in the eye and exclaims, ‘Do you think these local yokels of Erie county are going to trust a colored guy?’ I was flabbergasted."
The mood in the converted Amtrak car was awkward after Cuomo’s take on race relations in the new millennium.
"After Mario’s kid starts talking racial politics," Fred Farberbean, political analyst for HELLO SYRACUSE a morning talk show on the NBC affiliate there, remembers, "things got real quiet. The only noise that could be heard were the ice cubes rattling against the sides of Cuomo’s tumbler as he shook his glass from left to right. Finally the awful silence was broken when he let out a big belly laugh."
The news pool now was at a loss for words.
"I decided to change the subject," José Jimenez of él Diario reports. "So I asked him about the political stunt he pulled the other day. The one where he spent the night in a homeless shelter to show he cares about the problems of the common man. I asked him if he gained any insight into the world of the disadvantaged and underprivileged.
It was incredible. He just stared out into space very deep in thought. The moment seemed endless. Finally his concentration is broken and he takes a very long sip of his beverage. Getting his bearings and licking his lips he turns to me. Dramatically he raises his index finger to his chin and just says Fuck’em"
Former important Democrat Mario Cuomo, Andrew’s father, upon hearing his son’s quotes held a press conference.
"You media people blow things way out of proportion," the former party bigwig, flanked by Ted Kennedy, Ruth Messinger and Mark Green, said. "My kid’s comments were taken way out of context. He’s no racist! Some of his best friends are black. And as far as I know he has no ties to organized crime.
And, for the record, I know for DAMN SURE that not ALL homeless people deserved to be fucked!"