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| O’Donnell |
A former
Senate staffer, Lawrence O’Donnell of MSNBC offered a gem of a commentary last
week when he shared “The Best Blizzard Story I Have Ever Heard.” Fellow legislative
aides – current and former – will certainly appreciate this tale.
In the nightly
“Rewrite” segment on his TV show, O’Donnell told the story of the late NBC News
icon Tim Russert’s humble start in politics. Fresh out of law school, Russert volunteered
for the 1976 campaign of legendary Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, a former Harvard
professor. After Moynihan’s election win, Russert became head of the senator’s Buffalo
office in the future newsman’s beloved hometown.
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| Russert |
Just three
weeks later, a massive blizzard (even by Buffalo standards) hit and Russert sprang
into action. He convinced the Washington office to get Moynihan up to Buffalo
quickly to make his presence known and to get the senator talking to media
about the crippled city’s need for federal assistance.
Moynihan later
insisted that Russert, a political rookie, come with him back to the Capitol
and follow through on the push for aid.
In Washington,
Russert doggedly arranged more press briefings that kept the story in the spotlight. He
wrote a letter to the president and, though he hadn’t showered in days, the
haggard Russert personally delivered the letter to the White House, to Chief of
Staff Hamilton Jordan.
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| Moynihan |
Liz Moynihan,
the senator’s wife, spotted a talent and told Russert to take a new post as her
husband’s Washington press secretary. Russert returned to Buffalo, gathered his
things, and drove back to Washington in his 1972 Gremlin.
From there, he
eventually became Moynihan’s highly successful 1982 campaign manager and later
his chief of staff. O’Donnell recalls that in a 1984 strategy session for his
presidential campaign, Gary Hart famously remarked, “Get me a Russert.”
conceded years later that he was often uncomfortable in his early days working
on Capitol Hill because Moynihan’s staffers were serious, highly intellectual
Ivy Leaguers. Russert’s blue-collar roots spanned back to the days when he
worked as a garbageman to earn money for college tuition.
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| Russert and Moynihan in the early days |
But Moynihan,
who once shined shoes in Times Square to make a living, quietly valued his
spokesman’s “political instincts and street smarts,” according to O’Donnell.
When Russert
confessed his insecurities to the senator, Moynihan
burst out laughing.
you,” he said to his trusted aide, “what they know, you can learn. But what you know, they
will never learn.”
Love that story.
