“Fling away ambition; by that sin fell the angels.”
So says Cardinal Wolsey to Thomas Cromwell in Shakespeare’s “Henry VIII.” But Cromwell failed to heed his mentor’s advice and eventually lost his head.
American politicians aren’t losing their heads literally, just metaphorically. From the overlapping scandals roiling Virginia’s leadership to the grotesque pink spire recently adorning New York’s One World Trade Center, it seems that ambition is detaching some politicos’ heads from reality.
The Virginia intrigues almost defy untangling. Within hours of Gov. Ralph Northam seemingly speaking in defense of liberalizing late-term abortion practices, opponents published a photo from his medical school yearbook page of two men, one in blackface, the other in Ku Klux Klan garb.
The governor first apologized for the photo, then backtracked, saying neither was him. Within a couple of days, he apologized for another long-ago blackface incident.
Just after his scandal’s onset, an accusation of sexual assault against Virginia’s second-in-command surfaced. Vanessa Tyson — graduate of Princeton and the University of Chicago, professor at Scripps College in California and, she says, “a proud Democrat” — claims Virginia Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax assaulted her at the Democratic convention in 2004.
Her accusation actually reached The Washington Post a year ago. She had shared her story upon seeing news of his election. Lacking corroboration, though, the Post declined to print it — until now.
Before her identity was revealed, the lieutenant governor — who, like Ms. Tyson, is black — denounced her vehemently. In the same denial, he also blamed the story’s airing on the aforementioned, white-in-blackface governor (whom he might otherwise soon replace).
Thus defamed, Ms. Tyson decided to make a public statement: “Mr. Fairfax has tried to brand me as a liar to a national audience, in service to his political ambitions.”
Ambition. Every twist or turn in these Virginia scandals (there’s another, involving the state’s third-in-command) lays bare the ways in which political ambitions warp people’s principles and corrupt their character. Human nature being what it is, this is true everywhere.
You could argue that Mr. Fairfax’s denunciations are not just about ambition but also about self-preservation, since he could face criminal charges. But implying that Gov. Northam might influence what the Post publishes? That’s ambition unmoored from reality.
Mr. Northam’s waffling also reeks of ambition. If he isn’t in that photo, why was it on his yearbook page? Why deny that one but admit to another? This is quite whacko.
But the worst, the most untethered from humanity, is Andrew Cuomo’s pro-abortion celebration.
The Democratic governor of New York, catering to a hard-left base, promised during his 2018 campaign for a third term that he would pass legislation to reinforce abortions rights. And he delivered. The new law doesn’t just reaffirm Roe v. Wade; it contravenes current science and reverses recent trends, allowing abortion virtually up to the moment of birth, permitting non-doctors to perform such abortions and so on.
The law was passed Jan. 23, the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, and to celebrate what he terms “progress,” Gov. Cuomo ordered that various New York landmarks be illuminated with pink lights, the color used to celebrate the birth of a baby girl and symbolize the battle against breast cancer (like that of the governor’s longtime companion, celebrity chef Sandra Lee). Because fetuses are like cancer cells?
Remember the call for “safe, legal and rare” abortions? The recognition that abortion is at best a sad event? If that moral possibility still existed in some hearts, there would be no grand-standing, no self-congratulatory lighting displays. It seems a career of serving his ambition has severed Mr. Cuomo from his own humanity.
Ambition — “by that sin fell the angels.” You have to wonder how much further mere mortals can fall.
Ruth Ann Dailey is a columnist for the Post-Gazette (ruthanndailey@hotmail.com).
First Published: February 10, 2019, 5:00 a.m.
