Is it time for Andrew Cuomo to descend from Olympus?

The last time Andrew Cuomo ran for governor, he was impetuous to a fault, crashing around New York’s Democratic establishment and nearly leaving his career in shambles.

It turns out there are second acts in American lives, at least when you’re part of one of the nation’s most potent political dynasties.

As Attorney General, Mr. Cuomo has reinvented himself as a more temperate, measured version of Eliot Spitzer.

But as we stumble into 2010, Mr. Cuomo needs to rediscover some of that impetuosity and political courage.

It’s not enough for him to sit on the sidelines while Governor David Paterson beats his brains out trying to solve the worst budget crisis in decades.

We need a clear vision sooner rather than later of what he would do differently to improve the state’s economy and restore sanity (not to mention solvency) to Albany.

In most years, of course, the smart play would be to remain above the fray, marching pure and unsullied toward election day.

He would avoid angering the unions. He wouldn’t trouble the public with warnings of painful cutbacks to schools, healthcare and aid to local governments.

But the disaster we face is, potentially, epic.

And so far, I can’t find anyone with better ideas than the ones Mr. Paterson is advancing for how we should get through it.

In his occasionally inept way, our current Governor has offered straight talk about a future that involves sacrifice and real hardship.

He has outlined an increasingly coherent vision for a leaner, more limited state government.

And he has done so in the face of public employee unions and a state legislature that have proved themselves to be symphonies of dysfunction.

My hope is that Mr. Cuomo will enter this contest, and that he has smarter ideas for how to accomplish this brutal transition.

But sooner rather than later, he’ll have to descend into the troubling world that New York state has become, get his hands dirty, and take sides in the ugly battles ahead.

Otherwise, his credibility as a legitimate successor to Mr. Paterson will be in question.

Tags: election10