​Former Governor Mario Cuomo, father of Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, made a rare endorsement today: He likes Bill de Blasio for Public Advocate. The Times sees it as a snub to Mark Green, and no kidding: as Wayne Barrett observed in 2006, Green was not gentle with Cuomo fils in a debate during the attorney general nomination race, at which, among other things, Green used a Barrett Voice story (gasp!) to attack Cuomo for his ties to Andrew Farkas, whom Green called a "slumlord."

Barrett recorded Cuomo's response: He "ripped into Green, saying that Green would 'go down in the books' as one of the nastiest negative campaigners of all time, a guy who'd attacked Geraldine Ferraro and Chuck Schumer, and who in 2001 ran in New York City a mayoral race that was 'one of the most divisive in modern political history.' When it came to the facts of Green's assertions, however, Cuomo said he 'can't go through the facts--they're distortions'"...

Barrett further reported that, after the debate, a Cuomo supporter bellowed at him to report on the alleged malfeasances of Mark Green's brother Steven. Andrew Cuomo happened to be nearby, and remarked, "No, he'll never do that. He'll never write about Steven Green."

"I have no animus toward Mark Green," the elder Cuomo cautiously tells the Times, "but I know that I was displeased with some of the things that he did in the campaign." Mario Cuomo robocalls on de Blasio's behalf are already rolling out. Photo (cc) David Berkowitz.