Word: moynihan
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Whether at a small dinner party or a formal campaign appearance, Moynihan is always on. Inflection and voice register change like a barometer in the monsoon season. Two long index fingers simultaneously punch holes in the issue of the moment. Or he puts on his leprechaun's phiz to explain pragmatism with a parable from Gulliver's Travels, recalling the Lilliputians who signified political faction by the height of heels and others who fought over opening the big end or the little end of a boiled egg. "Happy is the political society," he concludes with obvious delight, "whose...
...That Moynihan himself may appear too adjustable, depending on the prevailing breeze, has provided Buckley with some ammunition. The Senator only hints at the point, but Campaign Manager Len Saffir calls Moynihan a "phony and an opportunist," and says that last year he "clearly used the United Nations as a forum" for personal political motives...
...Moynihan certainly turned himself into something of a national hero (and did wonders with the Jewish vote) by his spectacular stands in defense of Israel and in defiance of left-wing totalitarian assaults on the West. But he argues that he told President Ford he planned to stay on, and that he would have remained had he not fallen afoul of Henry Kissinger, who disapproved of his too independent line. After resigning from his U.N. post, Moynihan returned to Harvard, where for four months he pondered a political run. Centrist party leaders courted Moynihan for two reasons: they thought...
Abortion provides a significant contrast between the candidates. Both oppose abortion on demand. But Buckley is a champion of the Right to Life movement and author of a proposed constitutional amendment that would severely restrict abortion. Moynihan is against any such amendment, arguing that it would be "coercion" of one group by another. "We are in a post-Constantinian church," he says. "We really cannot expect our moral code to be translated into the legal code...
...clearest clash, however, is over bread and butter. Unlike Buckley, Moynihan favors a federal takeover of welfare, passage of a national health-insurance bill and enactment of other measures necessary to help the economically distressed Northeast. He accuses Buckley of abandoning New York State's economic interests for the sake of antiquated conservative principle...