Among Andrew M. Cuomo’s strengths, conspicuous piety would have to rank near the bottom. For most politicians, holier-than-thou is not a good look, and it is a particularly bad fit for Governor Cuomo. His considerable successes have been based on practical, hand-to-hand, knee-to-the groin political combat, not public sanctimony.

He proved that last year and confirmed it this week.

Last summer, drawing on powers included in a 1907 law that arms governors with a kind of investigative bludgeon, Mr. Cuomo set up what he said would be a completely independent special commission to investigate public corruption. Although it seemed likely the State Legislature would be the prime target, with one member or another being hauled into court every few months, Mr. Cuomo declared that the commission would have free rein.

“Anything they want to look at, they can look at: me, the lieutenant governor, the attorney general, the comptroller, any senator, any assemblyman,” he said in August.

This was truly reckless language. There is no way on earth that he could have meant what he said.

And in a statement, Mr. Cuomo’s team said it was preposterous to think that the commission he said would be completely independent was really supposed to be independent: