Furthermore, the commission can only make recommendations. That is, in the unlikely event Cuomo appointees on a Cuomo-dominated commission were to vote to conduct a Cuomo investigation, issue a report outlining Cuomo’s misconduct, and recommend Cuomo’s removal (as opposed to, say, a fine), the commission would have no power to enforce such findings. It would be up to the legislature to decide what to do . . . which means we’d be right back to where we are now.

Yes, there’s nothing quite like the investigation of misconduct by people who get to write and influence the enforcement of the rules under which their misconduct is investigated.

In any event, the only way to accelerate this plodding procedure would be for the state assembly to take matters into its own hands, do a quick investigation, and, if appropriate, charge the preferential treatment allegation as an article of impeachment. But of course, it is the state assembly that is the (non)laboring oar on Cuomo’s stalling strategy. The Cuomo allies in charge will undoubtedly insist that the Joint Commission on Public Ethics must be permitted to carry out its investigative process . . . just like Cuomo allies insist that the attorney general’s independent investigation of sexual-harassment charges must run its course . . . and that the various state and federal probes of COVID-related nursing-home deaths must be completed . . . and who knows what else they can dredge up that needs examining — with Cuomo providing ever more grist for that slow-grinding mill.