We already discussed how the City of San Francisco moved to ban travel to North Carolina in response to their recently passed bathroom privacy law, but that was apparently only the beginning of a chain of events in the liberal political pool. Thanks to Governor Andrew Cuomo, the state of New York has jumped on the bandwagon and instituted a similar ban.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed an executive order Monday barring all non-essential state-funded travel to North Carolina to take effect immediately…

Cuomo’s order calls for all New York state agencies, departments, boards and commissions to review state sponsored travel to North Carolina and prohibit any travel not essential to state law enforcement or public health and safety.

“In New York, we believe that all people — regardless of their identity or sexual orientation — deserve the same rights and protections under the law,” said Cuomo.

This should lead New York voters who are worried about a collapsed budget process and higher taxes to ask a simple question: How much non-essential travel are Empire State government workers engaging in anyway? If there’s any meat to be cut out of the budget on that count, one might assume that the Governor would already have done it. Of course, the answer is very likely close to zero because this has nothing to do with actual policy change and everything to do with posturing by Cuomo, who is still suspected of harboring ambitions toward national office.

Meanwhile, the soap opera style atmosphere surrounding the law back home in North Carolina was taken to the next level this week when the state’s own Attorney General said he wouldn’t defend the law in court during the upcoming challenge. (Fox 8)

Attorney General Roy Cooper, who is challenging Gov. Pat McCrory for governor, spoke out against House Bill 2 Tuesday morning during a press conference.

Cooper said his office, “will not defend the constitutionality of the discrimination in House Bill 2.”

McCrory signed the bill, called the Public Facilities Privacy & Security Act, last Wednesday after it was passed by the North Carolina Senate.

Cooper, as noted in the article, is running for McCrory’s job. You can’t just fire your AG when he’s running against you, but in this case the Governor probably wishes he could. Unfortunately, as is common around the country, the Attorney General is an elected office rather than being an appointee serving at the pleasure of the Governor, explaining why there is a Democratic AG and a GOP chief executive. Cooper has held that job since 2000 and has been courted by the Democratic Party as a possible candidate in the past, not only for the Governor’s mansion but the Senate as well. He’s declined each time, sticking with his current post, but this year he’s decided to go for the big chair.

Cooper doesn’t seem to have developed problems with his liberal base even though, as you may recall, he was the official who finally dismissed the Duke rape case back in 2007. (A rare act of good sense on his part.) But since he’s facing a heated battle this summer, he’s likely looking to shore up his bona fides with the SJW even further through this moment of grandstanding. The only remaining question is who will take over his duties in defending the state during the challenge to the privacy law. Isn’t that pretty much one of the definitions of his job? Sounds more like dereliction of duty to me.