Hot on the heels of his incendiary "extreme conservatives" comment, this Thursday New York Governor Andrew Cuomo took flight from the frigid, snow-covered confines of Albany for the warm embrace of sunny Southern California.

Was it to take cover from the harsh criticism reigning down upon him as the result of his ill-advised diatribe against a large portion of his citizenry?   Perhaps he wanted to get as far away as possible from the controversy surrounding the Mayor of his biggest city who is currently embroiled in an unfortunate little class-warfare dustup? Or maybe he just wanted to put his toes in the sand and soak up some rays on a lovely beach to help forget about the mini-ice age that New York is suffering through this winter (caused by global warming of course.) 

All of those scenarios would be valid, but in this case, wrong.  You see, the self-appointed judge of who does or doesn't belong in New York, the esteemed Mr. Cuomo is actually flying across the country (at what cost and at whose expense?) to attend a Hollywood fundraising gala in his honor, with tickets ranging in price from $5,000 to $50,000. This despite having already amassed over $33 million in his reelection campaign war chest (Where are all those indignant Citizens United protesters when you need them?) 

So, while the right half of the Empire State is still reeling from being publicly ostracized by someone who they mistakenly thought would, despite differing political philosophies, continue to protect their constitutional rights of free speech and association, Andy jets off to the left coast to schmooze with the movie industry's big-money power brokers.

Now this might be just another of those "democratic governor rubbing elbows with uber-left Hollywood types in order to garner support for a potential presidential run" scenarios.  However, this plot takes a sinister turn when you consider that Governor Cuomo has in the past fiscal year alone provided $420 million in tax breaks to television and movie studios as an enticement for them to film in New York.  In fact, New Yorkers subsidized 30% of the $100 million it cost to shoot Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio's "Wolf of Wall Street."  I hope the irony of that fact isn't lost on our misguided "OWS/hang the 1%" friends.

So this begs the question:  Is Andrew Cuomo really that arrogant to think that he can get away with using taxpayer money to subsidize his sycophantic Hollywood friends who will then provide tens of thousand of dollars in kickbacks, I mean, contributions to his campaign coffers? 

Coming from the man who just insulted and foolishly attempted to demoralize the citizens in his State who dare oppose his radical, far-left agenda, I suppose the answer is quite obvious.