Reply #59: I could list [View All]

[H2O Man]

far more than four things about Moynihan off the top of my head, including many positive and many negative things. He lived for years at Pinder's Corners, a hamlet outside of Oneonta, NT, not far from me. A close friend worked for him while he was Senator, and he was one of my uncle's favorite politician. I had quite a bit of contact with him, and especially with his office, over the years.

Moynihan was, in his younger years, pretty close to being a "Kennedy democrat." By the mid-1980s, he had shifted to being closer in foreign policy ideas to the neoconservatives that had joined the republican party that decade.

He was certainly among the more intelligent members of the US Senate in recent history. But, again by the mid-1980s, one needed to approach him for important business before the lunch hour.

Russert's working with Moynihan is an important factor in considering his entire career. Russert's main area in his work at NBC/MSNBC was Washington, DC, rather than international affairs. He knew the ways of Washington from his association with Moynihan.

Equally impressive, in my opinion, was that Russert worked with Mario Cuomo after he was with Moynihan. Governor Cuomo is another highly intelligent democrat, and in my opinion, is among the best politicians that the nation has produced in recent history.