Cuomo Blasts GOP for Worst Kind of Politics

In what was likely his final speech as New York’s governor, Mario M. Cuomo bitterly criticized the new Republican agenda as politics at its worst, guided by opinion polls, tainted with racism and devoid of compassion.

“Politicians used to think of themselves as shepherds. That’s all over now,” Cuomo told a full house at the National Press Club on Friday. “Now the politicians are following the sheep: Read the polls! They’ll tell you where to go to pasture!”

Democrat Cuomo, defeated last month in his bid for a fourth term by Republican George E. Pataki, warned voters that they had better take the time to think about what they want and then send the right signals to their government.

“If you tell them you want the death penalty, you’ll get it,” Cuomo said. “If you tell them to ignore sick people, you’ll get it. If you tell them to ignore the poor, you’ll get it. If you tell them to victimize young children, you’ll get it.

“Be careful what you ask for because they’re listening for you. And ask for the right things. Ask for the truth,” he said.

Cuomo, the Democratic Party’s most articulate and stalwart liberal, blasted the GOP’s “contract with America” as “a kind of plastic populism.”

“It makes absolutely no demand on our political leadership, other than that they set sail in whatever direction the political winds appear to be blowing at the moment,” he said.