Corruption? Sure, there’s corruption — when it comes to politics, it simply comes with the territory. That’s basically what New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s remarks boiled down to this week when he defended his administration’s devious behavior. He’s not wrong, but he also kind of misses the point. Here’s Cuomo:

> “I’m realistic enough to know in an operation this size with this much money and this many players, it’s unrealistic to say nothing bad is ever going to happen. Some people have bad intentions. Some people, frankly, are stupid. And things will happen. The real question is what do you do when you find the bad actor? How do you respond? Do you punish him, and do you put the systems in place to make sure it doesn’t happen again?”

According to The Journal News Media Group, that’s how Cuomo responded after he “faced another round of questions surrounding the ongoing investigation by U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara’s office, which is examining the Cuomo administration’s major economic-development initiatives, including the Buffalo Billion program.”

What Cuomo is basically arguing is that New Yorkers shouldn’t expect legally dubious behavior to be nonexistent. And in that sense, he’s absolutely right. But it’s a sad testament of the times that folks like Cuomo expect Americans to also not hold government officials to higher standards and not hold them accountable when they exploit the system. After all, this is the state that birthed the politically corrupt machine of “Boss” Tweed and Tammany Hall. Cuomo’s remarks contain an element of truth, but what he’s really asking is that state residents show grace and overlook this little “mishap.” That’s another way of saying there’s a lot more to this story. Oh, by the way, when it comes to corruption, New York still tops the list.