We still have Nixon to kick around!

Barack H. Obama is our 44th president and the first bi-racial president.

Richard M. Nixon was our 37th president and a psychopathic criminal.

He ordered break-ins and cover ups, sold his office for campaign money, stole public funds for private use, cheated on his taxes, used the IRS and Justice Department to harass his political opponents, hired goons to beat up anti-war protesters, spied on Democrats and investigated their private lives, illegally wire-tapped journalists' phone calls, lied to the American people about Vietnam, and was forced to resign in disgrace.

And that's just some of the bad stuff he did.

But despite all that, Nixon was really worried about America losing its soul. He thought America wasn't moral enough. And as the latest bunch of White House tapes released today from the National Archives reveal, he was against abortion -- except in certain circumstances.

On the tape out today -- recorded on January 23, 1973, the day after the Roe v. Wade decision came down from the Supreme Court -- Nixon says there are times "when an abortion is necessary. I know that. When you have a black and a white ... Or a rape.”

Wow! So if Tricky Dick had had his way, Barack Obama would never have been born. In Nixon's mind, Obama's conception was basically akin to rape. Yuck!

Dick Nixon's brand of dark, dishonest, fear-based politics has had a lasting impact on today's Republican party. Anyone who lived through the last eight years of the Bush presidency knows that. (Former VP Dick Cheney got his start in the Nixon administration. Big surprise.)

In the early 1970s, of course, George W. Bush was too much of a drunken slob to work in a diner let alone in the Nixon administration -- but his daddy did. When this tape was made, George H.W. Bush was the UN Ambassador here in NYC and Nixon called him on New Year's Eve, 1971.

This tape, though short, is fascinating. First, it was recoded late that night but Nixon is alone at the White House. You see what a weird, introverted loner he was. Second, you hear what a desperate pathetic kiss-ass Bush Senior was. Third, Bush makes a passing comment about living "in royal splendor" -- that splendor being the Waldorf Astoria hotel.

At one point, Nixon asks Bush about "fighting that New York society crowd" and Bush says that he doesn't like living in NYC or having his family here. Of course, that didn't stop Nixon from moving to NYC after his presidency and, of course, Bush was descended from a rich Wall Street family!

What hypocrites! But then again, how typical of Republicans.

Once Upon a Time in Greenwich Village ... or ... Where Watergate Began

One fine day -- around noon on March 6th, 1970 to be exact, nearly 55 years ago -- a townhouse located at 18 West 11th Street exploded. In this beautiful, serene part of Greenwich Village, an unimaginable act of terror had occurred.

But not really. The explosion was an accident. 

Inside several young people who were part of the left-wing terrorist group the Weather Underground had been building bombs. They were planning to cross the river and attack Fort Dix in New Jersey, then Columbia University, but these young, brash, radicals had no experience handling explosives -- and tragedy ensued.

This very public act of (accidental) domestic terrorism freaked the city out -- as well as the White House of President Richard Nixon. And it set off a chain reaction that eventually led to the first Presidential resignation in American history.

In the aftermath of the Greenwich Village explosion, a young White House aide named Tom Huston wrote a 43-page memo. Dubbed the Huston Plan, it outlined how the US government should fight back against groups like the Weather Underground -- including break-ins, kidnapping, intercepting mail, wiretapping, blackmail, psy-ops, all kind of nasty and ILLEGAL stuff. Huston presented his plan to then-FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover. No stranger to the dark arts of surveillance and disruption, Hoover actually rejected the plan -- he didn't want his agents to be put into a position where they might get arrested by local law enforcement and, as an old man, he no longer had the stomach to explain this kind of stuff to Congress. So he dismissed the Huston Plan and that, so it seemed, was that.

Nixon was pissed. He didn't want any more domestic terrorism on his watch and he ordered the plan implemented anyway -- until he backed off. But the idea that his White House might have to freelance on its own to stop America's domestic enemies remained a widely held belief amongst All the President's Men.

A year later, in April 1971, the Pentagon Papers were leaked to the press. This massive, secret report detailed how the United States had gotten mired in the Vietnam War and lied about being able to win an unwinnable war. The Republican President Nixon, at first, actually was delighted about the leak -- the Pentagon Papers indicted Nixon's two Democratic Presidential predecessors, JFK and LBJ, over their handling of the war -- and viewed it as a political boon for him. But then his National Security Advisor, Henry Kissinger, told him that if the Communist Russian and Chinese governments saw that someone could leak secret information to the press and get away with it they would think that he, Nixon, was a "weakling." 

Nixon flipped out. He ordered that the man who had leaked the Pentagon Papers to the press, a former Pentagon aide named Daniel Ellsberg, be prosecuted or neutralized. And Nixon didn't want anymore leaks or terrorism or anything like it -- thus the White House Plumbers, a secret group of former FBI and CIA agents, to do dirty jobs for the White House to "plug" the leaks.

In the fall of 1971 two Plumbers -- G. Gordon Liddy and Howard Hunt -- broke into the Los Angeles office of Daniel Ellsberg psychiatrist to find information about him that they could use for blackmail. They found nothing and ended up smashing up the doc's office. They returned to the White House empty handed, the Plumbers were disbanded.

But what should have been the end of the story was only the beginning. 

Hunt and Liddy were sent to the Nixon reelection committee called CREEP (Committee to Re-Elect the president). Even though this two dopes had messed up their previous assignment, the geniuses at CREEP decided to put them in charge of "black advance" -- spying in Nixon's potential Democratic opponents and sabatoge their campaigns. Eventually this led to Hunt and Liddy and a group of Cubans breaking into the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee on June 17, 1972. Thus Watergate, the most consequential political scandal began. And two years and two months later, on August 9, 1974, Nixon would resign the presidency.

It's hard to realize that such momentous history happened within less than five years in the early 1970s. And obviously Watergate is the famous scandal in history.

The seeds of this most American tragedy weren't planted in the White House or even in Washington, DC -- it happened here on the streets of NYC, where history is always happening, once upon a time. 

Nixon & George Bush: December 31, 1971

Former President George H.W. Bush died this weekend. He was the first president I remember seeing elected and taking office (I was too young to remember the Carter presidency or the early days of Reagan's). Bush was VP and President for most of my childhood, a constant presence, until he was suddenly defeated by Bill Clinton and vanished from public view for a long time. 

Now he's gone for good, and he had a long, incredible life -- a true American story (whatever you thought of him).

Bush lived in NYC in the very early 1970s when he was the UN Ambassador under President Nixon. (He only did the job for two years before being recalled to DC to head the Republican National Committee.) This phone call between the then-current and future presidents from New Year's Eve 1971 is fascinating (it was recorded on the very same taping system that would bring Nixon down 

a few years later but, at this moment, the Watergate break-in hadn't happened yet).

Nixon calls Bush at the ambassador's residence at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in NYC (the same hotel where I spent my wedding night decades later) and wishes him a "happy new year." Bush is overwhelmed by Nixon's thoughtfulness to call. Nixon asks him how he likes "fighting that New York society crowd" and Bush says that he hates the "New York society crowd" and he doesn't like his family living in NYC but that he is "ensconced in royal splendor", a reference to life at the Waldorf.

I wonder if Bush was just saying that to play up to Nixon's well-known resentment of "New York society" i.e. rich liberal Jewish people -- I hope that's the case. Either way, it's fascinating to listen to this moment in history between two momentous historical figures.

Reviews: "Journey's End" and "Frost/Nixon"

So far this year I have been lucky enough to see quite a bit of Broadway theater ("Company", "Grey Gardens") and now "Journey's End" and "Frost/Nixon." Here are my quick reviews:

"Journey's End": sadly this play will close soon but it was a heart wrenching account of the boredom and sheer horror that is war. Set in a British trench during World War I, we see men of various ages trying to keep sane and maintain their dignity and honor while faced with almost certain death. One of the most powerful plays I have ever seen. If you can't see it, try to find the script to read. Words can be more devastating then violence.

"Frost/Nixon": this (hit) play is a "behind the scenes" look at the famous 1977 interviews between British playboy journalist David Frost at the 37th President of the United States Richard Milhouse Nixon. The play shows how Frost tried to revive his career by interviewing the disgrace former President and how Nixon used the interviews to rehab his rep. Wonderful performances by Michael Sheen as Frost and the legendary Frank Langella as Mr. Nixon. You might think this serious, heavy stuff but au contraire: any play about raging egomaniacs is automatic fun.

Presidential Deaths in NYC

Thirty years ago today, right here in NYC, the 37th President of the United States Richard Nixon died at the age of 81.

Like many, Nixon has always fascinated me -- he was perhaps one of the smartest people ever to become president and his rise from poverty in California to the heights of American power is truly astonishing. But he was so paranoid, so full of rage and anger, that he never seemed to enjoy his historic success or where his brilliant mind had taken him in life. Ultimately his rage and paranoia overwhelmed his genius and accomplishments, leading to his presidential and reputational demise. 

I've written a lot about the Nixon paradox over the years and, even when he died thirty years ago, people were trying to psychoanalize him.

But I come not to praise or criticize Richard Nixon but to bury him (again) along with the other US Presidents who have died in NYC. Nixon is the most recent of four presidents who expired within the five boroughs. The others are:

- James Monroe, 5th US President, died in NYC on July 4th, 1831 from heart failure at the age of 73. 

- Chester Arthur, 21st US President, died in NYC on November 18th, 1886 from a stroke at the age of 57. He's also only one of two presidents (the other being George Washington) who took the oath of office in NYC as well. 

- Herbert Hoover, 31st US President, died in NYC on October 20th, 1964 from an internal hemorrhage at the age of 90.

I won't speculate if any of the current living presidents will pass away in NYC but I can't think of a better place for someone who achieved America's highest office to go into their permament reward.  

And how appropriate that a criminal case against another former president is opening today in NYC on the anniversary of the death of this other criminal president -- an accountability that Nixon himself managed to avoid. 

In Search of Exiles

One-hundred years ago tonight Prince Edward of the United Kingdom was honored with a big dinner at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel. He was concluding a long North American tour, previously visiting Canada and Washington DC, and was closing it out in grand style in NYC. At this moment in time, Edward was at the center of the world -- the handsome young star of the royal family, icon of the British Empire, and a future King. The world genuflected to him, he was beloved and  feted everywhere he went -- and it was impossible to imagine on this night 100 years ago that, less than 20 years later, he would become one of the most famous exiles in history.

1919 was a turning point in world history -- a year after the end of the War to End All Wars, WWI,  known then as the Great War. The world was putting itself back to together, trying to pick up the spiritual and literal rubble of the most useless, insane act of violence in world history. The culture was changing too, casting off the crusty old world Edwardian culture and embracing the world of Dadaism and post-structuralism. This brilliant podcast from WNYC is all about how the "shell shock" of the war changed the culture of the world forever.

As for Edward himself, he would return to the Waldorf many years after 1919. He had abdicated the throne, a fallen man, exiled from his country and family, shacking up with his twice-divorced American wife, uninvited to his niece's wedding and coronation. In the new season of The Crown, Edward is shown at the end of his life in 1972, still showing a great, almost masochistic love for the family and monarchy that had doomed him into exile. (Right now, 100 years later, that niece, Queen Elizabeth II, would surely love to exile her son Prince Andrew after his bizarre TV interview where he spoke, badly, about his friendship with the late NYC financier/predator Jeffrey Epstein. While he probably won't be forced into literal exile like Edward was, Andrew probably will be in a kind of functional exile from now on. He shamed himself, and now his family and his country want little to do with him. So into the wasteland of exile he goes.)

But exile isn't just for royalty! In the era of #MeToo, any number of formerly prominent men are being exiled from their careers and social lives, banished from their professional circles and polite society. Liked Prince Edward 100 years, they used to exist at the center of things, they were the honored guests in powerful worlds -- only to be cast out, shunned, told to take a physical and reputational hike.

What does it mean to be an exile? To be banished from a place or a group of people? It means, most simply, to occupy a negative space -- not to live but simply to exist in a place far away (literally and otherwise)  from where you want to be. It means your invitation has been rescinded, your credentials revoked, your entry badge confiscated -- you're persona non grata in a place where you were once very ... persona grata. In short: it means you go from being wanted to unwanted.

What's more painful than that?

Here's another great example of a famous exile.

The great NYC journalist Pete Hamill, in late 1974, visited San Clemente, California in search of Richard Nixon. Two years earlier Nixon had won the biggest landslide in American presidential history -- he carried 49 states! -- and was as popular and powerful as any president had ever been. Nixon strode the world stage like a colossus, opening diplomatic relations with China, limiting nuclear weapons with the Soviet Union, and winding down the war in Vietnam. And then ... in 1973 and 1974, the Watergate scandal consumed him, forcing him to resign in August 1974 and into exile in California. In this article, Hamill roams around the area near Nixon's home, talking to people there about whether or not they have seen America's most famous exile (they hadn't), wondering about the state of mind of a man who very recently had not only lived in the White House but who also seemed to have the literal world at his feet -- and was now a hermit in a small Southern California town, hidden not only from the world he used to dominate but from his very own neighbors.

Later on Nixon would move to NYC (he died here in 1994), not quite as reviled as he had once been but still an exile from the world -- the political world -- that he had once ruled.

But being exile isn't just an existential state, it's more a state of mind. Being an exile is defined by a never-ending "wanting", a non-stop desire to have or be something you once had or were, now gone and locked away from you. It's defined by the aforementioned negative space, by a perennial emotional and mental sense of absence.

Being an exile is like being a living void, a sort of real-life zombie.  

Right now, there are hearings going on in DC about whether or not Donald Trump, the most vile president in US history, should be impeached. Maybe he will be, maybe he won't. But we can only hope that this modern day monster will be one day become an exile too, banned not only from the White House and political world but from the America's consciousness. Hopefully he will suffer a poitical and reputional fate, a total and complete exile, as bad as the ones Edward VIII and Richard Nixon and many others have suffered.

Memo from NYC

As another presidential election year grinds on, I thought it would be interesting to look back at some presidential elections from years past.

Specifically, 1972. Forty years ago.

This is best known as the Watergate election when President Richard Nixon won an historic 49 state victory in the shadow of what became the greatest scandal in American history -- prompting the president's resignation (the first and only ever) less than two years later.

The below clip, from ABC TV on election night 1972, is fascinating. 

It's around 9:30 PM. When the clips begins, they announce that Nixon has been re-elected and that he has carried an important state -- New York. This would be only one of three times in the last forty years that New York state has gone Republican in presidential elections. The only other times are when Reagan won our state in 1980 and 1984. Otherwise New York state has gone Democratic in every other presidential election since then.

Shortly after that they announce that the Democratic candidate is currently leading in the Delaware Senate race. His name is Joseph Biden, and he's only 29 years old. Joe Biden would go on to serve in the Senate for the next 36 years and is currently the Vice-President of the United States. He'll be on the ballot again this year, in what'll probably be his last election, right below the name of President Barack Obama who was only 11 years old in 1972 (and who yours truly will proudly vote for again this year).

At about fifteen minutes into this clip, they interview John Ehrlichman, President Nixon's domestic policy advisor and one of his chief henchmen. Ehrlichman was, by this time, deeply involved in the Watergate scandal and had overseen a number of illegal activities in the Nixon White House. Of course, on this night, none of that is known to the public yet and the Watergate burglary is just a blip on the media and political radar. But soon the scandal will unfold. Nixon will fire Ehrlichman in April, 1973 and he will eventually go to jail.

In this clip, however, on this night, Ehrlichman is triumphant, declaring that this election represents a "new American majority." And when asked about Watergate, Ehrlichman says that the burglars will stand trial and that "will probably be the end of the story." 

Not exactly.

Finally, if you watch enough of this clip, you might be wondering, Where's the big board of the country lighting up in either blue or red when a candidate carries a state? Well, there is no board. Believe it or not, those big election night red state/blue state boards of the country weren't used until 1976, four years later.

So watch this clip and enjoy seeing an important moment in American history -- where a President who won his first election in 1946 (for congress) wins his final election for president 26 years later, and where a future Vice-President who will (hopefully) win his final election for Vice-President this year wins his first election forty years earlier. Two men from two political parties, whose careers together span almost 70 years of our history, having their fates meet at what turns out to be a fateful moment in the history of our country.

Memo from NYC

As this presidential campaign reaches its penultimate days, Mr NYC has been looking at election nights past. Thanks to the glories of YouTube, you can look back at history being made, as presidents are elected and, in the case of the below clip, unelected.

We looked at 1972, the night the soon-to-be-disgraced Richard Nixon won a second term as president. This clip is fascinating for a few reasons: 1) Nixon carried New York state, one of only three times after WWII that a Republican carried the Empire State; 2) there's a short interview with John Ehrlichman, a top Nixon aide, who laughed off the Watergate story as something that would soon be coming to an end; and 3) a brand new senator from Delaware is elected, a very young Joseph Biden who is, of course, the current vice-president and will be on the ballot again a week from tomorrow.

Then we looked at 1996, the night that Bill Clinton won a second term. This clip is also fascinating because you see Donald Rumsfeld, one of the worst people on the planet, talking about how Bob Dole is still planning to win the presidential election -- even after he's lost. Shortly thereafter you see Clinton's brother Roger pondering his sister-in-law's possible political future -- and, of course, we know that Hillary would eventually become a senator from New York and eventually the secretary of state.

Now we take our final look at election nights past -- 1976. This was the night that former Georgia Governor Jimmy Carter defeated President Gerald Ford. Ford had become president only two years earlier after Nixon had resigned in disgrace because of Watergate -- the same story that John Ehrlichman had previously laughed off. Ford was the first incumbent president since Herbert Hoover in 1932 -- forty-four years! -- to lose. This clip is interesting because apparently, at this moment, Ford was fast asleep in the White House and didn't even know that he was out of a job. It's also interesting because there was some controversy about ballots being cast in New York that the Ford campaign was making some noise about having re-counted. This never happened, obviously, and the controversy died quickly. Carter became president in 1977 and lost re-election to Ronald Reagan in 1980.

And, of course, there's 2008, and this clip literally speaks for itself.

Now we look to the future. A week from tomorrow the country will be voting for president and, it goes without saying, that we must re-elect President Obama. The idea of Willard Romney as president is horrifying: he will destroy Medicare and Social Security, strip women of their reproductive freedom, probably start another war in the Middle East, and implement anti-union, ant-worker laws. His ridiculous tax policies will only make the deficit worse, and he will re-introduce the a level of government secrecy that is practically fascistic. 

If you liked George W Bush, you'll love Willard Romney.  

Of course, Willard doesn't want you to associate him with Bush -- who wants to be associated with the one of the worst presidents in American history? Willard would have you believe that, even though both he and Bush are Republicans, that they have very little in common.

Don't believe it.

As this article smartly indicates, Willard is running very much in Bush's shadow. Bush haunts him. Bush overwhelms him. And this isn't surprising. After all, Willard is basically promising to restore the Bush policies that did so much to damage this country while trying to distance himself from the man. It's a tightrope to the White House that Willard deserves to fall off of. Bush and Willard are two peas in the same political pod and that's why it's vital that Obama win. 

Why would this country want to go back to the horror that it's only now digging itself out of? 

Obama has restored the economy, saved the auto industry, endorsed gay marriage and repealed "Dont Ask Don't Tell", appointed two smart women to the Supreme Court, signed the pay equality bill, enacted historic health care reform, and ended the stupid war in Iraq.

And yes, he killed Osama Bin Laden.

That's a good record, worthy of a second term. Willard isn't worthy of a first. 

Let's hope America makes the right decision next week and that this will be an election night we can look back fondly at. 

Nelson Rockefeller Sworn in as 41st Vice-President -- December 19, 1974

Before a certain orange failed businessman/reality show buffoon became President of these United States on January 20, 2017 (mercifully evicted from office on January 20, 2021), the last New Yorker to serve in high office was Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller -- or Rocky.

Scion of one of the richest and most famous families on Earth, Nelson Rockefeller was a four-term Governor of New York State, first elected in 1958 before resigning in late 1973. A year later, however, Rocky was "called to serve" as Vice-President by President Gerald Ford.

Rockefeller's journey to the Vice-Presidency remains the most dramatic in history. In the 1960s, while Governor, he ran for the Republican presidential nomination multiple-times -- and lost. His presidential dreams were squashed, in large part, by his divorce and subsequent re-marriage to "Happy", this at a time when divorce was more a political liability than it is now. Bored as Governor, his presidential dreams dashed, Rockefeller finally quit as Governor to return to a private and luxurious life.

But history wasn't done with him yet. The Watergate scandal subsumed the country and the presidency of Richard Nixon. In 1973, just a couple of months before Rockefeller quit as New York Governor, Nixon's Vice-President Spiro Agnew resigned in a bribery scandal. Agnew was replaced as VP by Gerald Ford, a genial Congressman from Michigan. And then, even more dramatically, in August 1974, Nixon quit as president under threat of impeachment and removal from office. Ford became president and, just like Nixon before, he needed a VP -- and so he called Rocky.

This special report of his swearing-in late 1974 is amazing, a glimpse at an extraordinary moment in time as the last New Yorker to become Vice-President takes office. Rocky's time at the top would be brief -- in 1976, Ford would dump him from the presidential ticket and Rocky would retire from politics completely. He returned to NYC, lived in his Upper East Side townhouse, and died in 1979 while banging his secretary -- oh, no, sorry, "working on his memoirs."

Enjoy.  

The Presidents and the Kings

On December 21st, 1970, the President Richard Nixon met Elvis Presley, the King of Rock'n'Roll, in the Oval Office: 

Two years later, on December 19th, 1972, President Nixon had a brief condolence phone call with a very young Senator-elect Joe Biden who had just lost his wife and daughter in a horrific accident:

Nixon would resign just under two years later after the Watergate scandal and Biden would go on to serve as a US Senator, Vice-President, and President for the next 52 years. 

And on April 26, 2024, President Biden visited Howard Stern, the King of All Media, in his studio where he talked about his life, career, and the tragedies and triumphs that shaped his life:

All I can say is that, after listening to this interview and in this very crazy world, we're really lucky to have Joe Biden in the White House and Howard Stern on the airwaves. They keep us decent, they keep us sane. 

Remembering Rocky

Wacky governors and Vice-Presidents have been in the news a lot lately -- including one particularly bizarre Governor who might have been Vice-President. We've heard all about the various financial, ethical, and zipper problems that Blagojevich, Palin, Sanford, and Spitzer have suffered in the last year. And whether its the sinister, creepy Dick Cheney or the gaffe-a-minute Joe Biden, our Vice-Presidents have been providing lots of comedic fodder to keep the American people amused. All this talk of Governors/Vice-Presidents got me thinking about the last New Yorker who ever served in high office. That would be Nelson Rockefeller, "Rocky" as he was known popularly known, who was Governor of New York from 1959 to 1973 and then Vice-President under Gerald Ford from 1974 to 1977. His last name tells you everything you need to know about his background. Born to amazing wealth and privilege, Rocky was at the very top of the very top of the ruling class. Elected New York State Governor four times, he tightened drugs laws, created the SUNY system, conserved huge amounts of land, built massive construction projects, and took Robert Moses out of power in 1968. He ran for the Republican nomination for president three times but lost in 1960 and 1968 to Richard Nixon and in 1964 to Barry Goldwater. Just goes to show you that money can't quite buy everything. Rocky's private was also a bit ... rocky. While he was still governor in 1962, he divorced his first wife and then married his mistress Margaret "Happy" Murphy the next year. As you might imagine, this was a considered a huge scandal at the time. In an era when America was still very much in a conservative 1950s frame of mind, venerated politicians -- and a Rockefeller no less! -- simply did not dump their wives and marry younger women. It was considered quite gauche and had a lot to do with Rocky not getting the GOP nod in 1964 (which many people at the time felt he was owed since he didn't get it in 1960 and Nixon had then subsequently lost the general election to JFK). Rocky quit the Governorship in 1973, returning to his life of privilege and considering another run for president in 1976. But history came knocking on his mansion door. After Gerald Ford became president in 1974 when Nixon resigned because of Watergate, Ford tapped Rocky to be his Vice-President. Rocky was confirmed by the Congress in December 1974 and served until Ford left office in 1977. Sadly for Rocky, Ford dumped him from the GOP ticket in 1976, replacing him with Bob Dole and thus ending Rocky's political career. Rocky returned to NYC and lived here for the last two years of his life. The circumstances of his death have became somewhat legendary. The official version is that he was found dead in his office on January 24, 1979 slumped over his desk while working on a book. In reality, he died on that day in his townhouse while engaging in an ... amorous embrace ... with his 25 year old secretary. So here's to good ol' Rocky, the last New Yorker who served in national office. He political career was impressive, his service to our state and nation admirable, and his private life worthy of the tabloids. And compared to our modern day politicians, he was unquestionably a giant.

Where is Hugh Carey when we need him?

Politicians in general, and New York politicians in particular, are not a well-respected bunch. Even in the best of times they are viewed with disdain; during the worst of times they are downright hated. But it is a truism of American politics that most politicians and their legacies are viewed more favorably long after they've left office.

Take, for example, President Gerald Ford. His pardon of Richard Nixon in 1974 was met with universal condemnation and lead to his defeat in 1976. Yet more than thirty years later most Americans agree that it was the right thing to do -- he removed Watergate from the national agenda and put the business of governing the country first. Probably the most famous example post-presidential rehabilitation is Harry Truman. When he left the presidency in 1953, he had the lowest approval ratings ever recorded. He was despised. And yet today he is widely regarded as one of our greatest presidents: the Marshall Plan, the Berlin airlift, the doctrine of containment, the desegregation of the military, the ending of the rail strike -- he put America and the world back on track after the Depression and World War II and set for the stage for the eventual peaceful end of the Cold War. (No wonder Republican George W. Bush always compares himself to Democrat Harry Truman.)

Closer to home, and more recent in history, is the case of Hugh Carey. A two-term Governor from 1975-1983, he lead New York through the fiscal crises of the 1970s and saved the city and state from bankruptcy. It was a brutal time in the city's history. During the 1960s and early 70s, Mayor John Lindsay, Governor Nelson Rockefeller, and Presidents Johnson and Nixon had driven the city, state and country into a godawful fiscal mess -- their out of control budgets and loose fiscal policies had exploded government debt and caused awful inflation, and it was left to the likes of Carey, Ford, and Mayor Abe Beam to clean up the mess.

But it was Carey, most of all, who did it: a master at the art of politics and compromise, he managed to get the federal government to bail out the city by playing the business community against the labor unions and getting them to make concessions that made the bailout possible.

There is a new book out called The Man Who Saved New York: Hugh Carey and the Great Fiscal Crises of 1975 that chronicles how he did it. I haven't read the book yet but in only two reviews I've learned some fascinating tidbits. One is how he managed to compromise when necessary and stand his ground when vital, and how he built up relationships and credibility with both Republicans and Democrats and was able to work with them to solve the problems. Another is how, of all people, Mayor Richard Daley of Chicago and President Ford's then Chief-of-Staff conspired to strangle New York by refusing the bailout in an insane attempt to convince the financial industry to leave NYC and move to Chicago. They did this by putting pressure on the Illinois delegation in Congress to vote against the bailout. Fortunately, through Carey's maneuvering, Mayor Daley and this chief-of-staff were beaten and NYC got bailed out and the city was saved.

Today, when our city and state are staring down the barrel of yet another fiscal crises, we could really use another Hugh Carey. Here's hoping that, if he becomes governor, Andrew Cuomo will do his best. At the very least, he should read this book.

Oh, and what was the name of that Chief-of-Staff who didn't want to bailout NYC and had the crazy idea of relocating the financial industry to Chicago: Donald Rumsfeld! Not the first time he had a spectacularly bad idea (and his deputy chief-of-staff was a man name Dick Cheney who was also strongly against bailing out NYC -- as if we needed any more proof that these guys were just pure evil).

Now More than Ever!

When Richard Nixon ran for re-election in 1972 -- in what was then the dirtiest, most crime-ridden campaign before 2016 -- his slogan was "Nixon: Now More than Ever!"

Now, almost half a century later, we find ourselves living with another corrupt, dangerous president who, embarrassingly enough, is also from NYC.

Yet he happens to be just one of the 8.6 million people -- you read that number right -- who call the "Big Apple" home (although he currently doesn't live here, thank the Lord Almighty). 

A new Census Bureau survey indicates that the population of our dear city is bigger than ever.  There are now, literally, more New Yorkers than ever before. In the 400+ history of NYC, never before have this many people lived within the five boroughs. The population has increased by almost 450,000 since 2010. We're now past the halfway point where, pretty soon, this'll be the place where we'll be talking about "nine million stories in the naked city."

But forget the gasbag from NYC who's currently stinking up the White House. Instead, read about this New Yorker, an amazing artist who uses metals and "overlooked materials" in his work. These are the kind of people who make this city great and, in the end, give us hope.

And we need hope -- now more than ever!

To the Archives!

Of all the many wonders of the Internet (and I'm not talking about social media, podcasts, or p-o-r-n), perhaps the most amazing thing is that seemingly ephemeral artifacts once lost to history -- or at least locked away or archived someplace so obscure as to be functionally if not literally lost -- can easily be found. Just a few taps on a keyboard and, voila, history -- in the form of documents, articles, new reports, recordings (both audio and visual) and other curiosities of the past -- will instantly appear. 

The Internet can be a time machine -- we can make the past present again. Once upon a time we had to rummage through boxes in storage bins or archives or thumb through picture books or wrestle with microfiche to summon up days of yore. Now we just sit at our computer.

Here are two very different but equally fascinating examples of things that seemed lost to the past but that are now very much present again:

1. In the 1980s, the city government launched a project to photograph every building in NYC. All of these photos, some 800,000 of them from the Municipal Archives, are now available in this searchable database. You can scan a map of the city, zoom in, and click on a street to see what it looked like almost 30 years ago. It's quite fascinating -- I can see the block I lived on as a kid and the block I live on now as they appeared back in the day. If you have any fond memories of certain streets or neighborhoods, check this archive out!

2. And then, of course, there's Donald  Trump. Specifically, the 15 hours of conversations he had with radio star Howard Stern between 1993 and 2015. These appearances are like the Nixon tapes -- a deep dive into the psyche of a president. Unlike Nixon, who spent his time ranting about Jews, Trump's conversations with Howard are mostly about "broads." Perhaps the wildest conversation is from 1997, after Princess Diana died, where Trump talks about his attempts to woo her and how, according to him, he could have "nailed" her. But oh, he would have made her take an AIDS test first. Yes, that's the 45th President of the United States folks! What a gent he is ...

The great thing about the Internet is that the past is firmly within our grasp (after all, this blog has been around for more than a decade, a living real time recorder of history itself). The bad thing about the Internet: the past is now something that nobody, not even a billionaire POTUS, can ever truly escape. 

Does Tom Wolfe's "Radical Chic" Hold Up?

Ever since the writer Tom Wolfe died a couple of weeks ago, many of his fellow scribes have been going back over his work, remembering what made the man in the white suit such a journalistic trailblazer.

One of the things that fashioned Wolfe's legend is his 1970 article "Radical Chic: That Party At Lenny's." 

Written in deeply cynical, highly detailed observational prose, it's an account of a fundraiser for the Black Panthers held in conductor Leonard Bernstein's Dakota apartment. Wolfe (and others) crashed the event and greatly enjoyed writing about the incongruity of the world's most famous conductor and other elite cultural machers hanging out with a bunch of big, tough bearded black militants.

At the time, the story caused a stir. This was a classic example of "limousine liberalism", liberal hypocrisy, run amok. Conservatives loved it (including the Nixon White House), and the rest of American didn't care. But in NYC journalistic circles, it was a smash because, as a piece of reporting, it was spot on. 

Much of a fan as I am of Wolfe's other work, "Radical Chic" doesn't hold up so well today. As a piece of writing, it's still a strong example of journalistic craftsmanship but it's morality, by 21st century standards is ... less strong. 

It's snarky, sneering, and, yes, racist. 

It's an example of white privilege at its finest -- a white man mocking a bunch of Jews trying to help a bunch "scary" black guys. It's tone is vicious, full of hate in the guise of amused irony. But, because it's so well-written, it's almost easy to overlook this.

In short, "Radical Chic" is like an Americanized "Triumph of the Will": ugly politics, very well-produced.

So, sadly, this article just doesn't hold up. Something that was once a comment on its time is now a dated artifact of another time. (The fact that the Nixon White House (pre-Watergate) liked it should tell you something.) 

You should read the whole article to see what I'm taking about.

And, if you want more of the history of this article, read this. 

Review: "The Real Thing"

“I love love. I love having a lover and being one. The insularity of passion. I love it. I love the way it blurs the distinction between everyone who isn't one's lover.” 

There are few greater playwrights in the English language than Tom Stoppard -- Sir Tom Stoppard, that is to you. 

For nearly half a century, he has crafted some of the finest language ever to have crossed the stage. From the balls-out, awesome inventiveness of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead in the late 1960s -- a reworking of Hamlet from the perspective of the doomed prince's doomed sidekicks -- to the massive Coast of Utopia trilogy in the mid-aughts -- about, of all things, 19th century Russian intellectuals -- Tom Stoppard finds inspiration in the most unlikely material and brings it to life on stage with words of great beauty and power, the most dazzling language created this side of Shakespeare. Indeed, Stoppard is one of the Bard's true blue successors. 

I've seen some of Stoppard's plays over the years -- Arcadia, The Invention of Love, Jumpers -- and they never cease to amaze me. That was why I was so happy to go to the Roundabout revival of Stoppard's 1980's hit The Real Thing -- the second time it has been revived on Broadway since 1985 and the second time I've seen it stage. This is a very good production with one glaring problem.

The Real Thing is about a playwright named Henry (Ewan McGregor) who has been having an affair with Annie (Maggie Gyllenhaal), the wife of his actor friend Max (Josh Hamilton). Henry is married to Charlotte (Cynthia Nixon), an actress who is currently appearing in a play written by Henry. It's not giving away much that Henry and Annie run off together. Most of the play is devoted to the complexity of their relationship while Annie tries to negotiate her acting career while at the same time working on the "Free Brodie" (an imprisoned political activist) committee and Henry tries to keep writing while grappling with the challenge of being a divorced dad. Like all Stoppard play's, the plot is a device to encourage a larger discussion on the nature of truth, love, sex, family and how we understand them through the beauty and challenges of ... words. Also, The Real Thing has a big plot twist -- some might even call it a trick -- and it appears at the beginning of the play, not the end. Like all Stoppard plays, not only is the language sublime but so is the plotting.

This production is beautifully staged. The set is very modest and the actors really move around and use it in a way that helps to make the story compelling. There's a lot of music in this production, with the actors even singing along to a diverse number of songs like "Do Run Run" and "Whiter Shade of Pale." And, of course, the acting is great (well ... almost all of it). Cynthia Nixon, as always, is great. As wonderful as she was on Sex and the City, she really is one of the great stage actresses of her generation and is a joy to watch on stage. Josh Hamilton is very good as Max, making the most of the one of the most thankless parts I've ever seen in a play.

The biggest revelation is Maggie Gyllenhaal. Man, she is a GREAT actress. I've seen her in some movies like The Dark Knight and she was good. But on stage, with a great material like Stoppard, she really shines. Her Annie is such a complex, sexy creation that you can't take your eyes off her for a second. She generates so much power from the stage that you leave the theater thinking not just about what a great writer Stoppard is but what a great actress Gyllenhaal is. She inhabits Annie so completely that I'm still thinking about her performance. She's just a joy to watch.

The same, sadly, quite can't be said about Ewan McGregor. He is a very good actor and I loved him in Trainspotting (who didn't?). Also, he was the only decent thing in the Star Wars prequels. But he's a less than compelling Henry. In the play, Henry is supposed to be a great writer and a lousy human being. In fact, he's kind of a prick. That's part of what makes his evolution in the play into a good husband and father so important. But McGregor is just too likeable, too decent, too ... unprickish ... that this evolution doesn't really register with the audience. I will, however, admit a bias: in the revival I saw in 2000, Stephan Dillane (better known today as Stannis Baratheon in Game of Thrones) played Henry and he was incredible (won a Tony for it, in fact). McGregor just doesn't compare. I tried to seperate the two performances in my mind but just couldn't: while McGregor's Henry is passable, it just didn't work for me the same way Dillane's did. 

However, these feelings aside, this Real Thing is a production worth seeing. 

“Words... They're innocent, neutral, precise, standing for this, describing that, meaning the other, so if you look after them you can build bridges across incomprehension and chaos. But when they get their corners knocked off, they're no good any more... I don't think writers are sacred, but words are. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones in the right order, you can nudge the world a little or make a poem which children will speak for you when you're dead.” 

P.S. This production is appearing at the American Airlines theater on 42nd street. It's a great theater and it has a secret 5th floor bar that is a great place to go during intermission. When the wife and I went there to get a drink during intermission, there were hardly any people but there were lots of tables and chairs plus a beautiful open-air balcony. It's a real gem and worth checking out if you ever go to a show there.

A Primary Warning

Today is Congressional Primary Day in New York State. Since NYC is such a Democratic town, most the action is in the various Democratic Congressional Primaries taking place across the city.

The primary with the most historic importance is the one that will choose Congressman Charles Rangel's replacement. Rangel has represented upper Manhattan since 1971 and he was on the Watergate Committee (voted to impeach Nixon which is pretty cool) as well as on the powerful Ways and Means committee. Believe it or not, this area has only had TWO congressmen since World War II - Adam Clayton Powell and Rangel. So whoever wins this primary will be stepping into the shoes of giants.

Just south of Rangel's district, however, is a lower profile primary that is actually very scary.

Congressman Jerry Nadler has represented western Manhattan since 1993 (I grew up in this district) and he's done a fine job. (This district runs oddly shaped, running down the westside of Manhattan from Morningside Heights to Lower Manhattan and then hopping across New York harbor into inner Brooklyn. Honestly this district lines defy logic but it is what it is.) Anyway, Nadler is being challenged by a young man named Oliver Rosenberg. I wasn't paying any attention to this race until yesterday when, on WNYC radio, Nadler and Rosenberg debated. And. It. Was. Nuts.

Nadler is your typical Congressman -- on message, disciplined, touts his accomplishments, and takes about policy. He's not an exciting guy but he's clearly experienced and knowledgeable. This guy Rosenberg is ... obviously insane. Listen to the debate. He begins by yelling about his sadness that H&H Bagels no longer exists -- he literally shouts "We want our bagels back!" -- and then blames Nadler for gentrification (which I hate too but is not really a Federal issue) as well about how Nadler is "all talk and no action" and on and on and on. And he quotes Hamilton -- not the man but the musical and apparently he can't tell the difference between either. (Rosenberg also doesn't know that H&H closed down, not because of gentrification, but because the owner was a criminal). Rosenberg's main beef with Nadler is that Nadler supports the Iran Nuclear Deal which Rosenberg opposes. Okay, but Rosenberg, instead of giving a clear policy critique, yells about how horrible the Iranian regime is which isn't really the point. He's incoherent and evasive -- and nasty.

Rosenberg is clearly mentally unhinged and unfit to serve in any office -- he's basically a Donald Trump clone -- not to the mention the fact, as Nadler clearly exposed in the debate, Rosenberg is actually a Republican who's nostalgic for President Bush (!) and he's not even from NYC, but from California. Rosenberg talks about how he used to be a Democrat trapped in a "Republican body" and that he felt family pressure to conform -- until, apparently, the age of thirty.

Voters in Nadler's district -- please, please, please, for the love of God and everything that is holy, go out in droves and vote for Congressman Nadler. This is not a primary between equals, not a choice between two compelling candidates -- this is between an experienced, well-regarded congressman and a certifiable loon. Don't take it for granted that Nadler will win -- go out and vote! 

1994: A Cultural Nostalgia Trip

Re: my post below. Some of you might recall that 1994 was actually a very, very important year in American culture. In fact, it remains one of the most important cultural years ever. Think about it:

It was the year Pulp Fiction came out, revolutionizing independent cinema, unleashing the whole Tarantino phenomenon, and making John Travolta cool again.

It was the year Friends and ER premiered, giving us George Clooney and Jennifer Aniston and a whole lot more big names.

It was the year of the great but tragically short-lived show, the aforementioned My So-Called Life (that gave us Claire Danes).

It was the year REM released Monster, with their big hit "What's the Frequency, Kenneth?" Madonna also had a big hit called "I'll Remember" (the video of which you see here), that appeared in a now forgotten movie called "With Honors." The only thing that was interesting about this movie was that it was the last even semi-successful thing Patrick Dempsey did before Grey's Anatomy.

It was the year Kurt Cobain committed suicide and effectively ended the whole grunge movement.

It was the year Richard Nixon died, the first president to do so in more than 20 years.

It was the year Republicans took over the House and Senate, redrawing the political map. George W. Bush was also elected Governor of Texas that year and, well ... we all know what that led to.

And as I also indicated below, it was the year OJ Simpson was accused of murder, starting the whole 24/7 cable news soap-opera format.

I'm not saying everything that happened in American culture 1994 was great but it sure was memorable and it certainly had a lasting impact.

Dick Gottfried Says Goodbye

Assemblyman Dick Gottfried, who has represented the West Side of Manhattan in Albany for 52 years, will retire at the end of 2022. He's the longest-serving legislator in New York State history, a link to this city's and state's past. 

When he entered the Assembly as a twenty-something, Richard Nixon was President, Nelson Rockefeller was Governor, and John Lindsay was Mayor. The Watergate scandal was two years in the future, the NYC fiscal crises was 5 years in the future (as was Saturday Night Live), Son of Sam was 6 six years in the future, and 9/11 and COVID-19 were 30 and 50 years in the future. His long career was a part of and an undercurrent of this history, a source of stability in tumultuous times.

Politicians like Dick Gottfried are increasingly rare these days in that he was a public servant as much as a politician. He didn't want glory, fame, or money, and he didn't get into nasty scandals or say bombastic things -- he just served his constituents, faithfully and honestly and thoughtfully, for more than half-a-century. This city and state were lucky to have him and we can only hope that we'll get more public servants like him in elected office in the future. 

Twin Towers Tightrope Walk - Phillipe Petit

When we think of the Twin Towers, we can't help but think of tragedy. But once upon a time, it was a place for magic. And on this sad day, I thought it might be nice to remember this as well.

On August 7, 1974, America was in another kind of funk. The Watergate scandal was crippling America and, two days later, Richard Nixon would resign as president. Yet on this very day, an eccentric Frenchman named Phillipe Petit walked on a tightrope between the World Trade Center towers. He didn't just walk -- he danced. He also lay down on the rope and rocked back and forth, as stunned New Yorkers watched from below. It was a surreal, unbelievable moment, something that could only happen here. Petite never repeated this feat and, looking back, it's hard to believe that anyone was ever able to do this.

So it helps to remember that, in the midst of all of the madness in the world, there can also be magic.