Memories of Moynihan

NEW YORK - The Museum of the City of New York has opened an exhibit on the life and times of Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, who represented the state for 24 years.

Amid the green felt-tip pens, the signature bow tie, the Irish tweed hat and the reminders of four former presidents he served is a photo that goes to the heart of the man. It is 1972, and the future Democratic senator is working for President Nixon.

Standing with his hands in both pockets, he is looking askance at presidential staffers H.R. Haldeman, John Ehrlichman and Henry Kissinger in deep conversation. One raised bushy eyebrow tells it all: He is the amused odd man out on the enemy’s team.

Mr. Moynihan, born in Oklahoma and raised in Hell’s Kitchen, personified the New York liberal Democrat, but his intellectual and diplomatic credentials set him apart from most politicians. He served as ambassador to India and the United Nations and wrote or edited 18 books, more than most senators have read, columnist George F. Will observed at a recent tribute to Mr. Moynihan.

A City College of New York graduate, Mr. Moynihan served on three university faculties, including Harvard. He became so avid an advocate of architecture that the new Penn Station terminal will be named after him.

His 1965 analysis “The Negro Family: The Case for National Action,” which became known as the “Moynihan Report,” earned him the scorn of many liberals. His 1993 report on American culture and morals, “Defining Deviancy Downward,” now is a widely accepted comment on American values.

“To have someone in the Senate for 24 years who brings a level of such intellectual rigor and imagination is really an unusual and outstanding event,” said exhibit curator Thomas Mellins, a Democrat who never met Mr. Moynihan.

In the year since the former senator’s death at 76, Mr. Mellins said, family, friends and colleagues had called for some kind of tribute. At first, the idea was to celebrate Mr. Moynihan’s passion for architecture and preservation, but then the concept broadened to measure the many facets of the man in “New York’s Moynihan.”

A March 29 event at the museum was billed as a “symposium” on Mr. Moynihan, but turned out to be a collection of cronies reminiscing about their good times with the colorful senator. A panel of nine bore witness to the senator’s talents. Among the panelists was “Meet the Press” moderator Tim Russert, who was Mr. Moynihan’s chief of staff from 1979 to 1982.

“He was the smartest man I ever met and the best teacher I ever had,” Mr. Russert said as he set the stage for his favorite Moynihan story. In 1977, Mr. Russert and the senator were en route to New York to do a TV show. Mr. Moynihan asked what the questions would be. Mr. Russert replied: “No matter what they ask you, change the subject and talk about the World Series.”

To which the senator, replied, “And that might be where?”

“Right here, Pat, in New York” came the reply.

The show began and sure enough, the senator got a question about the borough president race between Andrew Stein and Bobby Wagner. The senator adroitly replied, “There’s only one race in New York today; it’s the World Series, and if the Yanks don’t win today, [Mike] Torres will do it Tuesday.”

After the show, an aghast Mr. Russert, said to him, “How did you know that, you know, about Torres?”

“Torres, who’s Torres?” replied the senator.

“You know, the part about if the Yankees don’t win today. … Mike Torres is the starting pitcher Tuesday.”

“Well,” explained the senator, “while I was in the makeup room, a kid came in with a ball and glove and wearing a Yankee cap, ’Hey, Mister, how ya’ doing?’ he said. I said, ’Are the Yankees going to win today, kid?’ And he said, ’If they don’t win today, Torres will do it on Tuesday.’”

“With that, he puts his arm around me and says, ’If you can’t trust a 10-year old, you have to get out of the business.’”

The audience of well-dressed friends and admirers, including Mr. Moynihan’s widow, Elizabeth, exploded in laughter.

Panelists vied to retell the myriad bon mots and anecdotes for which the eloquent Mr. Moynihan was known.

Mr. Will declared Mr. Moynihan as the Senate’s leading intellectual, “which is like being the tallest building in Topeka,” he added.

Harvard professor Nathan Glazer, who in 1963 authored “Beyond the Melting Pot” with the senator, remembered Mr. Moynihan’s “complex mind,” a rarity in the political world.

Brookings Institute Senior Fellow Stephen Hess, who served with Mr. Moynihan in the Nixon White House in 1969, said, “Nixon created his own downfall, but Pat Moynihan more than anything else in that one year created Richard Nixon as the last liberal president of the United States.”

Columnist E.J. Dionne Jr. said his favorite Moynihan quote surfaced when conservative columnist Robert Novak was baptized a Catholic late in life.

“Ah, we know you’re a Catholic,” said the senator. “Now we’ll see if you can become a Christian.”