Mayor Bramson for Mayor
A Whitney Global Media Editorial of the Air
broadcast October 30, 2019
by William O’Shaughnessy, President

We said it before.

Noam Bramson is a brilliant, precocious young man and a very gifted public servant. But as we approach our senior years, we also have to tell you of our regret that we’ve never been able to establish a mutually supportive relationship between Bramson’s City Hall and our nationally-known community radio stations. 

He’s also not the kind of guy you’d want to ask a favor for your brother-in-law.

I mention this because we’re even now at work on yet another history of those marvelous, down-home “Townie” politicians of years gone by that you could petition for a “favor” to help someone.  A few leap to my mind: Hugh A. Doyle, Alvin Richard Ruskin, Tony Colavita, Valerie Moore O’Keefe, Ed Michaelian, Andy Albanese, Herman Geist, Bert Campbell, Nita Lowey, Miriam Jackson, John Fosina, Jim Maisano, Len Paduano, Ron Tocci, Steve Tenore, Tony Gioffre, Vinnie Rippa, Louis Barone, Fred Powers, Rocco Bellantoni, Mario Biaggi, Tim Idoni and Joe Vacarella. And there were more … politicians the way the men of our fathers time imagined them to be. But Noam Bramson is just not “gaited” that way.

In the last several years, Mr. Bramson has fashioned himself as “Bramson the Builder” with many huge, sprawling buildings rising up where once there was urban chaos and decay. That is to his great credit. 

We’re not crazy about some of the “developers” Mr. Bramson and his highly-regarded Commissioner of Development Luiz Aragon have charged with re-building our fading lorelei of a suburban city.  With few exceptions, like Louis Cappelli and Joe Simone, many of the speculators now operating in our city have absolutely zero interest in Mario Cuomo’s admonition to “build up a community, make it stronger and – sweeter – than it was.” 

These are hard, take-no-prisoners, no-nonsense, show-me-the-money guys we’ve fallen in with.  And what Bramson and his cadre have done is accommodate them with huge, huge tax breaks spilling over many future decades. 

The success or failure of all this will be determined well down the road. But questions have already emerged.  Where the hell are these people going to shop? And probably the most pressing consideration of all: has Mr. Bramsom’s dynamic projectory taken the heart and soul out of the city?

With all the concrete being flung around, no one, it seems, has yet figured how to get people downtown. 

Bramson’s dynamism is enhanced by the wonderful, intelligent, hands-on City Manager Charles Bowman Strome. Chuck Strome’s very existence reassures the “townies,” and those with roots in our community. He takes the edge off Mr. Bramson’s “dynamism” by providing a grounding and respect for the city’s history and lineage.  Mr. Strome understands those townies with roots in the community to whom Mr. Bramson sometimes appears tone deaf. 

These new developers have tried to dazzle the local gentry with incredible urban-speak concepts like “crowd-sourced placemaking” which made absolutely no sense to the locals. And what did it mean? Unfortunately it’s the kind of meaningless Harvard-esque phrase that Mr. Bramson is so comfortable with. 

We’ve recently had three national writers call to ask us if his abilities and talents would fit a congressional seat. Our answer:  He would make a hell of a congressman.  But I did have to add that he’s not going to do any favors for the pro-life people.

But today he’s to be judged only on his stewardship as mayor of New Rochelle.  And on that he is entitled to very high marks.

We genuinely regret that the Republican candidate Brendan Conroy is just not at all in the Democrat’s league.  Mr. Conroy carries great lineage.  We adored his grandfather of sainted memory Governor Malcolm Wilson, the greatest orator Fordham ever graduated.  Mario Cuomo used to point out that in a political debate “Malcolm would beat you up in English … and finish you off in Latin!”

And lest we forget Mr. Conroy’s formidable mother is Katherine Wilson Conroy.  So the Republican comes at us from good genes and is a very nice man.  We look forward to seeing Brendan Conroy running for a seat on our Council one day.

But now in 2019 … for Mayor of New Rochelle WVOX and WVIP endorse the Democrat incumbent Noam Bramson.

He is who he is …

He has some wonderful qualities.  But just don’t ask him for a favor for your brother-in-law … or your old maid aunt.

This is a Whitney Global Media Editorial of the Air.  This is Bill O’Shaughnessy.

May it please you Monsignor Petrillo, beloved pastor of Saints John and Paul …

Welcome to our celebration of the 75^h Anniversary of Doctor Richard Rocco Pisano’s Natal Day.

First of all, thank you to his remarkable … and indispensable … … devoted and dynamic wife, Kathy Pisano, for this lovely party. She is essential to his practice, his career and his life. He knows it … and so do we all!

There are all kinds of people here tonight, other physicians and doctors – his colleagues – city officials, relatives, hospital and healthcare administrators, in-laws … and even a few outlaws.

So please humor me as I recount just a few things you may not know about Kathy’s great husband.  And our beloved friend.

He was born August 16, 1944, on the Feast of Saint Rocco.

Saint Rocco, was a Frenchman, (he can be forgiven for that!) who traveled to Italy to win eternal glory through miraculous healings of people afflicted by the Plague. Thus, the Church of Rome venerates his Birthday for protection against disease.  

So Dr. Richard Rocco Pisano is aptly named.  For a healer.  And a saint!

Some of you first encountered him as a young man at Xavier, the famous Jesuit high school in Manhattan. After graduation, he returned to the Jesuits at Fordham when it was truly a great university, before they began publishing my books!

He trained at the prestigious University of Bologna in Italy and interned at Fordham Hospital, St. Barnabas in New Jersey, and our dearly departed New Rochelle Hospital and Medical Center.

And the rest is history as he became the most respected general practitioner in Southern Westchester and rose to president of the Medical Board of Sound Shore, now known as Montefiore – where his colleagues and caregivers will confirm Dr. Pisano’s genius and dedication. But there’s more.

He’s essentially an ontologist. Now I know that’s a high-sounding word … that doesn’t quite fit in all the disciplines, specialties and categories by which practitioners of modern medicine cast themselves. But that’s what Mario Cuomo called him at one of my book parties.

He’s into Being. He’s into Life. And like his namesake from the 13^th century, he has dedicated the past four decades to encouraging Life … to prolonging Life …  to enhancing Life … to protecting Life.  To fighting for it and sustaining it.

He’s also a diplomat and a role model for his profession. Sometimes, you can size up a doctor by the shingle outside his office. If there’s a P.C. after the name, it stands for “Professional Corporation.” If there’s an “LLC” after the moniker, it means “Limited Liability Corporation.” And if you see either abbreviation, you know you’re in trouble!

Some of those physicians practice Business instead of Medicine. But not Rich Pisano. He examines, diagnoses, recommends, prescribes, lectures, treats, heals, ministers, counsels … and … loves. 

He’s at his office day after day or at Montefiore New Rochelle, making rounds, visiting, evaluating, inspiring and teaching. 

His patients include the young, the old and infirm, our families, our parents and those we love.  And, Kathy tells me we are joined and honored by the presence tonight of many of Dr. Pisano’s patients!

Finally, we think back to the 1970’s in our city. There were only really three top doctors in the region in those days, Ira Gelb, a great man … and a kindly white-haired doctor named Dan Sherber … and a beloved pediatrician, Irv Samuels. And all retired the very same year … in the early 70’s!

So we looked for a suitable replacement. And all the recommendations said the same thing.  There’s a wonderful, bright, dedicated and hard-working young man … a general practitioner we recommend very highly.

His name is Pisano.  Dr. Richard Pisano.

And so, he’s healed and comforted us for the last 46 years. As we came to love and trust him … with our very lives.

Before we hear from our great friend, counselor, and physician, who was so aptly named 75 years ago on that August day, the Feast … of Saint Rocco … I’d like to bring up four very special individuals who know intimately of Dr. Pisano’s unique goodness and his sweet attributes far better than I.

Jennifer Pisano … Captain Nicholas Pisano … Elizabeth Pisano and Sergeant First Class Richard Pisano.

September 6, 2019
VIP Country Club
New Rochelle, NY

Contact:

Cindy Hall Gallagher
914-235-3279
cindy@wvox.com

Charlie Kafferman

“A Dear Man” 

An Appreciation

by 

William O’Shaughnessy

July 8, 2019

In my business we “warehouse” obits … so that when someone departs for another and, we are sure, a better world … we are ready with the details, minutiae and landmarks of a person’s life. No such trove or repository exists for Charlie Kafferman because everyone in Litchfield fully expected him to be around forever to feed us, to counsel us and to entertain and anchor us with his wisdom of 88 years.

But at 2:30 on the summer Saturday just past, the legendary Mr. Charles Kafferman (I know the word is overused, but he was that), proprietor of the West Street Grill, an iconic eatery which has existed for 25 years in his lovely Connecticut town, died in Danbury Hospital after 10 days in the hospital’s Intensive Care Unit.  The formal notices of his passing will mention the culprit as “congestive heart failure.”

But earlier, and for many years, Charlie had battled lung cancer with visits to Memorial Sloan-Kettering in the great City, so many that he was known among the doctors and nurses as “Lazarus Kafferman.”

He is survived by his shy, modest, retiring life and business partner James O’Shea who knew his genius and goodness for 42 years. They lived together in a Colonial era house in the historic district of Litchfield which was once owned by J.P. Morgan.

By day and on most nights, Charlie and James repaired to their labor of love known by locals as “The Grill” and was operated almost as a private club. But Charlie made everyone feel welcome … from the landed gentry and hilltoppers of Litchfield and residents of Morris, Bantam, Woodridge Lake, Washington Depot, Bethlehem, New Preston and even as far away as Newport … to the newest arrivals in town for whom Kafferman was a generous, benevolent and knowledgeable counsellor. He took great pleasure in personally welcoming these tentative young couples and providing them with his food and inexhaustible repository of wisdom and his love for the town and its colorful and influential inhabitants.

They loved his stories about Sinatra and Mia Farrow. “I was there the night they got engaged … and I told Frank I knew her before he did!”  (It’s quite remarkable that Frank let him live!) One night at the Grill … I asked Mia, who was with Philip Roth, if the story was true.  She swore it was … “but Frank did ask me where that guy lives!  I wouldn’t tell.” Or the night at the Latin Quarter where he was mistaken for William B. Williams, the famous “Make Believe Ballroom” disc jockey. He also regaled listeners with the tale told by the great writer Philip Roth that when President Obama presented him with an award at the White House … the president whispered “Where’s Charlie?” who, as a favor to his pal Roth, had picked up an earlier award for Roth from the governor of Connecticut.  (Roth swore it was true!)

He could also discuss the rock groups U2, Mumford and Sons and the Rolling Stones with the Millennials. And he once trooped all the way uptown to Harlem for a concert.

Day after day, in nice weather, Charlie would sit with his beloved labrador Cashel.  As both were somewhat aging and together battling the diminishments, Cashel and Charlie had a special bond. Everyone would stop to pet Cashel and greet the restaurant proprietor who one day told me “Cashel and I are ‘hookers.’  We tell them ‘The food is great … go on in.  You can pet him.”

His warm, agreeable and welcoming personality – as well as his canon of stories and jokes (many of which could not be told on the radio) helped transform the Grill from your usual, run-of-the-mill “country restaurant” to a dazzling mecca of influence and celebrity. 

Night after night actors, publishers, artists, newspaper and magazine editors, Wall Street types, merchant princes, famous authors, Broadway and television producers, food critics and wine aficionados and colorful townie characters repaired to the Grill.  Among them:  Henry Kissinger … William Styron … Philip Roth … Richard Widmark … Mia Farrow … Sheila Nevins and Sidney Koch … Daniel Glass … Milos Forman … Judge Anne Dranginis and Judge Charlie Gill … Arthur Hill Diedrick … Tara Stacom Diedrick … Rex Reed … Debra and Declan Murphy … Sirio Maccioni … Bill Plunkett, Esq. … Teno West … Richard Gere … Cathy and Greg Oneglia … Renate and Tom McKnight … Ellen and Ray Oneglia … Rod Oneglia and Michael Quadland … David Pecker … Melissa and Paul Bennett … Julian Niccolini … Lauren and Armand Della Monica … Danny Meyer … Brooke Hayward … Bob Summer … Norman Drubner … Nancy Kissinger … Kim and Bobby D’Andrea … Joe Cicio … Lou Amendola … Norman Sunshine … Douglas Clement … Jim Hoge … William vanden Heuvel … Gregorio Alvarez …  Ron Leal and Joseph Montebello … Alan Shayne … Daniel Day Lewis … Andrew Thompson and Bradley Stephens … Robin Johnson and his family … Gina and Alexander Duckworth … Ann Sutherland Fuchs … Francine du Plessix Gray … Margot Wick … Wendy and Royal Victor IV a/k/a “Mike” (I love the name!) But everyone was welcome except an occasional ill-educated “gavone” who insisted on wearing a baseball hat in the dining room!  That would never do.

Charlie was a class act in every season.  And there was a big, broad range to his life.  His patron, admirer and friend Daniel Glass, the music impresario and record producer, was also taken by the unique professional and personal relationship between Kafferman and his partner O’Shea.  “It was a merger of two cultures:  the Irish and the Jewish.  They were a perfect team!” I myself saw this for many years as Charlie and James covered for each other. They protected and sustained each other.  James was, shall we say, a little more “colorful,” ahem, “outspoken” and, if you will, a little more “dynamic.” But Charlie was always wonderful, calming and reassuring.  And it worked.  They worked together.

James attracted and mentored many young, talented chefs while Charlie “dressed” the dining room of an evening … moving people around like Nelson Riddle arranged notes and making them feel important. But he was much more than a skillful “maitre’d” or talented restaurateur.

He had an eye for the ladies, and he wasn’t at all happy when I called him a “babe magnet.”  But he got a lot of kisses of an evening from rich widows and pretty young girls.

He could sense when people at his tables were hurting and life turned sad and difficult. That was his genius. He just “knew.”  He would sit for hours trying to reconcile warring husbands and wives and help them sort out their marital problems. And he “adopted” their offspring and followed them and their exploits down through the years. 

He’d often trot out one of his marvelous stories (or a risqué joke). Daniel Glass, the record producer, had a lovely line, “He gave us the nourishment of his own life before he gave up the nourishment of his food.  His ability to deliver a punch line was flawless. I’d try to remember them … but they never worked for me.” Glass, the discoverer of Mumford and Sons, also admired Charlie’s attire and way of dressing … “dapper, with such flair … all casual elegance.”

I’ve run on too long.  But how do you distill a Life of 88 years that included his enthusiasm for Litchfield County … Florida … Ireland … and the fashion world in Manhattan. He especially loved Ireland and took his last trip over there all alone at the age of 88, leaving James home to watch over things at the Grill. He also loved to head south in Ray and Greg Oneglia’s jet which was acquired from Ted Turner.

Before becoming a celebrated restaurateur and country squire late in life, Charlie Kafferman had an earlier career in the world of merchandising and fashion. As a young man he teamed with John Pomerantz, the founder of Leslie Fay … becoming one of the youngest vice presidents in the history of the famous conglomerate which, to this day, still makes women’s dresses and apparel. And Charlie then went on to own his own dress factories in this country and abroad, the products of which were featured at Macy’s, Gimbels, J.C. Penney, Saks, Dillard’s, Belk’s and I. Magnin. 

He will be buried this week in a Catholic cemetery in his beloved Litchfield as a result of only the most recent gracious and thoughtful gesture of one absolutely unique Reverend Father Robert Tucker, the popular and charismatic Roman Catholic pastor for Litchfield and surrounding towns.

That black lab named Cashel, however, is just moping around today, feeling “few” … and missing his pal “The Hooker.”

So is most of the town Charlie so loved. 

He was a dear man.

We thought he’d be around forever.

Contact:

William O’Shaughnessy

914-235-3279

wfo@wvox.com

Steve Dunleavy was a newspaper guy and he did some television via A Current Affair.

But, little known was his ill-fated foray into Radio.

It happened like this. I idolized one Richard Neal Travis, the diminutive boulevardier who was one of the founders of Page Six. He was very good to me and mine and our Westchester radio stations.  And I learned early on that when he was not cavorting or swanning about the Hamptons, Neal Travis was often to be found with another legendary print journalist Stephen Francis Patrick Aloysius Dunleavy a/k/a Steve Dunleavy.  They often kept company with each other at Langan’s saloon on West 49th Street, about a half a block from Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp empire and his beloved holding the influential New York Post.

One day I approached Travis and Dunleavy who were drinking their lunch at the far end of the bar.  When I introduced myself, Dunleavy, with eyes sparkling, looked up and said: “Oh, you’re Neal’s ‘Westchester Bureau Chief’!” It was an appellation and commissioning I’ve worn proudly for these many years.

A few drinks later Dunleavy said, “Why the hell don’t you put us on Radio?” Although I professed to know very little about national syndication, it occurred to me that the chairman of our Broadcasters Foundation of America Edward McLaughlin, former President of ABC Radio (Paul Harvey) and discoverer of the great Rush Hudson Limbaugh III, might be helpful. As chairman of the Foundation’s Guardian Fund, I was often exposed to McLaughlin’s perceptive genius at raising money while serving with him on the Board of our profession’s national charity.

We set up a “luncheon,” this time with food, at a real table at Langan’s with Travis, Dunleavy and McLaughlin. I watched with great satisfaction and considerable approval as the three took a great liking to each other. But as the drinks piled up and the afternoon wore on, I excused myself as the sun was now setting over Manhattan. And, clearly out of my league, I took my leave as my brilliant pronouncements began … I think … uh … slurring. I later learned that the three-way high council and “lemon squeeze” turned into an “early dinner” … all of which can be confirmed by Langan’s proprietor of the day Des O’Brien.

And so, next thing I know, McLaughlin had arranged for a “three-week” tryout for the dauntless duo on WABC. Their first radio guest was Liza Minnelli who was delightful.  But it became clear that Radio was not gonna work for Rupert’s guys. It was “bloody” this … “bloody” that … and about a hundred “Maties.” Although Travis was from New Zealand and Dunleavy, of course, hailed from Australia, the listener couldn’t discern who the hell was speaking at any given moment. There were more than a few “Don’t give up your day jobs” directed to them even after the first broadcast. (I’m afraid I was among the thumbs down crowd myself).

In recent years, Dunleavy toodled around in one of those red mobile scooters in the Florida Keys and at New York’s Island Park, colorful, spiffy and well-turned-out as always. And now he is gone.  And journalism loses another dazzling star, hard on the heels of the departure of James Earl Breslin of sainted memory.

And so this week as we sadly contemplate the loss of Dunleavy … I also think of his great pal Neal Travis. And I pulled up some pieces I did on him in my previous books (see attached). They were both wonderful.  And you have to put them together.

Dunleavy and Travis called Murdoch “The Boss.” And Rupert, who adored them both, called Steve “one of the greatest reporters of all time.”

Last word to Murdoch.

Steve Dunleavy from Previous Books

The Great Interpreters of the

Great American Songbook

Frank Sinatra …Fred Astaire … Nat King Cole … Mabel Mercer … Tony Bennett … Mel Torme … Chet Baker … Ella Fitzgerald … Doris Day … Bing Crosby … Louis Armstrong … Bobby Short … Hugh Shannon … Rosemary Clooney … Tony Perkins … Vic Damone … Skinnay Ennis … Charles Trenet … Norman Drubner …  Blossom Dearie … Jack Sheldon … Daryl Sherman … Ronny Whyte … Sylvia Syms … Noel Coward …  Richard Rodney Bennett … Robert Merrill … Chuck Castleberry … Dean Martin … Gianni Russo … David Allyn … Billie Holiday … Judy Garland … Murray Grand … Lady Gaga … Sarah Vaughan … Steve Ross … KT Sullivan … Edith Piaf … Matt Monroe … Mama Cass Elliot … Peggy Lee … Lena Horne … Eddy Sessa …  Billy Joel … Peter Mintun … Steve Lawrence … Eydie Gorme… Andrea Bocelli … Ted Straeter … Neil Diamond … Rod Stewart … Ethel Merman … Johnny Mercer … Matt Dennis … Charlie Cochran … Tierney Sutton … John Pizzarelli … Michael Feinstein …  Danny Nye …

However, I’m Less Than Enthused By …  

Some who look on Michael Bublé and really know music, like Egidiana Maccioni, a gifted singer in her own right, see Michael as the second coming of the Great Sinatra.  I don’t.

Harry Connick, Jr. is a good-looking guy who may be terrific on stage. But I’m not convinced he can sing.

Steve Tyrell often emotes in the legendary Café Carlyle where, for many years, the regal and magnificent Bobby Short, of sainted memory, dazzled the landed gentry.  Tyrell’s presence in that hallowed, exclusive venue is almost blasphemous. He’s admittedly got a lot of admirers for his scratchy, gravelly- voiced warbling. I’m not among them.

Jack Jones is a nice guy.  I knew and interviewed his father and mother, both great singers. Jack has pipes almost as good as Damone. But his choice of material, arrangements and orchestrations have always been wanting.

And one more: Barbara Streisand’s nasal, tonal, one – note voice is an “acquired taste” which I never acquired.

This Peggy Noonan column in the Wall Street Journal and the Post is so sad.

It could be the final takedown of a very decent guy.

I hope not. There’s a shrillness and outright nastiness to many/most of the other Democratic aspirants.

I’m probably for the President against all comers.  But Biden and/or Andrew would give me pause … and at least make me think about it.

(My forebearers are from around Scranton). 

(And Andrew is a son of Mario Cuomo).

I hope Joe Biden doesn’t let the loonies – or the Press – even someone we love like Peggy Noonan – yearning for the excitement of something new, drive him out.

He’s a politician the way the folks of our father’s time imagined them to be.

And that ain’t too bad …

If Biden Runs, They’ll Tear Him Up

The old Democratic Party was warm, like him. The new one rising is colder, less human and divisive.

Don’t do it, Joe.

Don’t run for president. It won’t work, you won’t get the nomination, your loss will cause pain and not only for you.

And your defeat will be worse than sudden, it will be poignant.

Right now operatives for the other candidates are trying to scare you out of jumping in. We all know that what you intended as warmth is now received as a boundary violation. You addressed this in a video that was crisp and friendly: You never meant to cause discomfort, you intend to change your ways.

But it’s not going away. It will linger, and more will come.

Democratic operatives do not fear you will win the nomination—they think you’re too old, your time has passed, you’re not where the energy of the base is, or the money. But they do not want you taking up oxygen the next six to 10 months as you sink in the polls. And they don’t want you swooping in to claim the middle lane. Others already have a stake there, or mean to.

In the past you were never really slimed and reviled by your party; you were mostly teased and patronized. But if you get in the race this time, it will be different. They will show none of the old respect for you, your vice presidency or your past fealty to the cause. And you are in the habit of receiving respect. Soon the topic will turn, in depth, to Anita Hill, the Clinton crime bill, your friendliness to big business. You have opposed partial-birth abortion. Also, the old plagiarism video will come back and be dissected. It was more than 30 years ago, and for a lot of reporters and voters it will be a riveting story, and brand new.

You backed the Iraq war. That question will be resurrected, as opposed to redebated. It is always fair to redebate it—to be asked, “Why did your generation of Democratic politicians back that war. Looking back what did you misunderstand?” But it will only be resurrected, and thrown in your face.

You will be judged to be old-school, and insufficiently doctrinaire. The current Democratic Party is different from the one you entered in the late 1960s, not only in policies but in mood, tone, style. Today’s rising young Democrats see no honor in accommodation, little virtue in collegiality.

In the old party of classic 20th-century Democratic liberalism, they wanted everyone to rise. Those who suffered impediments—minorities, women, working people trying to unionize—would be given a boost. There’s plenty to go around, America’s a rich country, let the government get in and help.

The direction, or at least the aspiration, was upward, for everybody.

The mood of the rising quadrants of the new party is more pinched—more abstractedly aggrieved, more theoretical. Less human. Now there’s a mood not of Everyone Can Rise but of Some Must Be Taken Down. White people in general, and white males in particular, are guilty of intractable privilege. It’s bitter, resentful, divisive.

And it is at odds with the spirit in which your political categories were formed. Actually, your politics always struck me as being like the World War II movies Americans of a certain age grew up on. The American soldiers are in the foxhole in Bataan, and there’s the working-class guy from Brooklyn, the tall Ivy League guy, the baker’s apprentice from Ohio. They’re all together and equal, like the country they represent. When the war’s over they’ll probably stay friends and the Brooklyn guy will be in the union and the Ivy League fancy-pants will be in management, but they’ll quickly forge the new contract and shake on the deal because back when it counted we were all in it together.

That is not the 2019 Democratic Party! This party would note, correctly, that there was little racial diversity in the foxhole, and would elaborate that its false unity was built on intersectional oppressions that render its utility as a unifying metaphor null.

The party’s young theorists are impatient with such gooey patriotic sentiment. America is not good guys in a foxhole to them, it’s crabs in a barrel with the one who gets to the top getting yanked down to the bottom—deservedly.

Your very strength—that you enjoy talking to both sides, that deep in your heart you see no one as deplorable—will be your weakness. You aren’t enough of a warrior. You’re sweet, you’re weak, you’re half-daffy. You’re meh.

At this point you’re not out of step, you’re out of place.

The press too will have certain biases, and not only because they’re 30 and 40 years younger than you and would like to see their careers associated with the rise of someone their age. Their bias is also toward drama, as you well know—toward pathos, and the end of something. They love that almost as much as the beginning of something. They can’t wait to write their Lion in Winter stories. “The Long Goodbye.” “The Last Campaign.” “Biden faltered for just a moment when a white-haired woman put her hand to his face and said, ‘I remember you from ’88, Joe. We all do, and we love you.”

And that is apart from those young reporters who consider themselves culture cops, and who enjoy beating people like you with the nightstick of their wokeness.

Why will it be painful to witness all this? Because it will mark the fall of a political figure who was normal. Who knew there was a left over here and a right over there and a big middle. Who went with the flow of cultural leftism but understood the other side’s reservations and signaled that in some way he had some sympathy for them. Who knew politics wasn’t always about absolutes.

This in contrast to the up-and-coming manipulators for whom it is second nature to feign warmth and outreach, but whose every hug is backed by the sharp and crooked finger of accusation. Their engine is resentment, their fuel is unearned self-esteem, their secret is lust for power.

You probably think they’re just girls who need a hug.

But their place is not your place.

It would be one thing if you wanted to enter the race to persuade the party on the merits of more-centrist approaches and working with the other side. But is that your intention? You’ve been apologizing for calling Mike Pence decent, and groveling over your “white man’s culture.” If you go with that flow, it will wash you away.

It is hard for the political personality to say no—to more fame, more power, more love. To the history books. It is hard for a man who’s always seen a president when he looked in the mirror to admit he’s an almost-president. It’s hard to get out of the habit of importance.

But you’ll never be unimportant. You’ll be Joe Biden, a liberal lion of the U.S. Senate at the turn of century. A man with a heart, unhated in an age of hate.

That’s not nothing, that’s a lot.

So don’t do it. Wisdom here dictates an Irish goodbye—a quiet departure, out the back door with a wave and a tip of the hat to whoever might be watching.

A “Foodie” recently asked me for a list of my favorite foods.

I came up with 95 “Favorites” on offer at restaurants in Westchester, Connecticut, New York City, Upstate, Italy and the Bahamas.

(I also added 17 I’m not exactly crazy about).

Favorites:

1. Egg salad

2. Tomato soup at Posto 22, New Rochelle

3. Mashed potatoes

4. Brussel sprouts

5. Chicken salad with mayo and celery

6. Deviled eggs

7. Asparagus

8. Sausage

9. Angel hair pasta with tomato & basil at Le Sirene, Larchmont

10. Steak at Tommy Moretti’s, Elmira

11. Joe Migliucci’s pizza at Mario’s, Arthur Avenue

12. Stir-fried pasta by Jonelle at Lyford Cay

13. Truffles

14. New England Clam Chowder at The Village, Litchfield

15. Salmon with skin always removed

16. Swordfish

17. Halibut

18. Homemade bread from Sam Tilley, Mockingbird or Jimmy Cosgriff, Torrington C.C.

19. Shallots

20. Chicken potpie

21. Shepherd’s pie

22. Vegetable tempura

23. Meatballs at the Venetian, Torrington by Fiorita DiLullo

24. Raw anise-fennel

25. Good olive oil

26. Sea salt

27. Chickpeas

28. Arnold Palmers

29. Reasonable red wine: Kaou (Pasa Robles)

30. Reasonable white wine: Louis Latour Grand Ardeche

31. Buffalo wings at Bernie Murray’s, Elmira

32. Lobster

33. Lobster spaghetti at Milos

34. Cornish game hen at Vice Versa

35. Avocado and crabmeat, West Street Grill, Litchfield

36. Heinz ketchup

37. Homemade mueslix

38. Berkshire pork chops

39. Vidalia onions

40. Dove ice cream bars

41. Margueritas by Guadalupe, Senor Pancho, Thomaston

42. Highams peppermint ice cream

43. Oysters

44. Stone crabs with mustard sauce

45. Pasta Fagioli at Buon Amici, White Plains

46. Crisp bacon

47. Butter

48. Fresh mixed berries

49. Lemon or raspberry sorbet

50. Soy sauce

51. Hellman’s mayonnaise

52. Crème Brulee

54. Cold poached salmon from the Pantry, Washington Depot

55. Hershey’s chocolate

56. Filet mignon tableside, Fife & Drum with Elissa Potts

57. Pignoli nuts

57. Gaston Lenotre’s Concorde cake, Lyford Cay

58. Lump crabmeat, “21”

59. Smoked salmon on pumpernickel, The Woodland, Lakeville, CT

60. Black and White milkshakes, Shake Shack or Carvel

61. Margueritas by Ivy, The Venetian

62. Mignonette sauce with oysters

63. Vin Santo dessert wine

64. Onion rings

65. Spring rolls

66. Macadamia nuts

67. Linguini & clam sauce (garlic in & out quickly), Mario’s, Arthur Avenue

68. Pasta primavera, Le Cirque style

69. Mushrooms

70. Squid ink pasta, Da Ivo, Venice

71. Dill pickles

72. Croissants, The Bakeshop, Litchfield

73. Roast beef, the Pioneer Saloon, Ketchum, ID

74. Nerf football-size Idaho baked potatoes, “The Pio,” Ketchum

75. Krispy Kreme donuts

76. Veal Chop, Parkside, Corona with Tony Federici

77. Crudités, The Four Seasons or Harry Cipriani
    
78. Butternut donuts, Dunkin Donuts

79. Cronuts, Enrico’s, Hartsdale

80. Kirsch aperitif

81. Pasta with prosciutto & Sant’Erasmo peas, Cipriani, Venice

82. Thai sweet chili sauce

83. Michael DiLullo’s “6 1/2-minute” salad, The Venetian, Torrington

84. House salad, Lemongrass, Burlington, CT

85. Homemade granola, Hidden Valley Eatery, Washington, CT

86. Frutti di Mare, Monaco Hotel, Venice

87. Liquid yogurt (Kefir)

88. Rice pudding

89. Grand Marnier souffles, La Grenouille, NYC

90. Baked Tagliolini at Harry Cipriani

91. Wonton soup, Thai in Love, Thomaston

92. Caviar

93. Enough lemon wedges with broiled fish

94. Zeppoles at Buon Amici, White Plains

95. Garlic Pizza, Mangialardo’s, South Waverly, PA

On the Other Hand …

I Try To Avoid:

1. Pasta overwhelmed with too much damn garlic

2. Broccoli Rabe

3. Catfish soup

4. Hanger steak

5. Skate

6. Shrimp that hasn’t been “rinsed” in salt and cold water

7. Frisee

8. Berry sauce on cheesecake

9. Truffle oil

10. GARLIC!

11. Fluke

12. Red, green or yellow hot peppers

13. Cucumbers

14. Mellon

15. String beans

16. Tilapia

17. Cavatelli and gnocchi

William O’Shaughnessy, a former president of the New York State Broadcasters Association, was chairman of Public Affairs for the National Association of Broadcasters in Washington.  He has been a point man and advocate for the broadcasters of America on First Amendment and Free Speech issues and is presently chairman of the Guardian Fund of the Broadcasters Foundation of America, the national charitable organization.  He is a longtime director and member of the Executive Committee of the Foundation. He has operated WVOX and WVIP, two of the last independent stations in the New York area, for 56 years as president and editorial director.

He is the author of “AirWAVES” (1999) … “It All Comes Back to Me Now” (2001) … “More Riffs, Rants and Raves” (2004) … and “VOX POPULI: The O’Shaughnessy Files,” released in January, 2011. He has also written “Mario Cuomo:  Remembrances of a Remarkable Man,” a tribute to his late friend Governor Mario M. Cuomo, published in 2017.  He is currently working on his fifth book RADIOactive for Fordham University Press, another anthology with interviews, commentaries, speeches and tributes which will published in September 2019.

Contact:

914-235-3279

wfo@wvox.com

Endorsement

Governor Cuomo for Governor

A Whitney Global Media Editorial of the Air

WVOX and WVIP

by William O’Shaughnessy, President

November 1, 2018

He is Mario Cuomo’s son. 

And in his best moments, he resembles his magnificent and graceful father.

That being said … no one knows the minutiae of governance or the complicated levers of government like Andrew Cuomo.  Not even his father of sainted memory.

Sure, Andrew knows how to play the powerbrokers and the union warlords.  He knows how to fist bump and chest pump and back-slap better than anyone.

But for those who think he doesn’t yet possess the rhetorical skills of his father or Joe Biden, for that matter … they should have heard Andrew speak passionately and movingly at the Central Synagogue in Manhattan earlier this week. (attached)

Indeed, there was soaring eloquence in the air despite the solemn occasion.  We were almost tempted to observe:  there was Mario in the air at the podium.

So much for those who dismiss the Governor as a mere “mechanic.”

His mother, the estimable and greatly respected – and I would say quite universally beloved – Matilda Raffa Cuomo – calls Andrew “The Energizer Governor.”  And we can’t do better than that. 

In his first two terms, Andrew has rung up an impressive list of solid accomplishments: gun control, the strongest in the nation … minimum wage … gay marriage … property tax caps … long-needed improvements to bridges and airports.  He’s also doing his level best on the subways, no easy task with Mayor DeBlasio’s ambition in the way.  And the Governor deserves great credit for pushing to eliminate all the wasteful overlap in services among the thousands of redundant local jurisdictions. 

He’s also made every move humanly possible to improve the diminishing fortunes of upstate New York … everything short of murdering the damn weathermen who prescribe those brutal, freezing, snow-covered winters west of Albany.  If there was a way to fix the drodsome weather … you can be sure Andrew would find it.

He’s not at all perfect.  Although he has carried forth his father and Hugh Leo Carey’s revulsion and disdain for the Death Penalty … we’re not crazy about where he is on the other, fundamental and essential Right to Life issues: i.e. the awful Abortion question. But one can only hope that he shares his father’s personal revulsion for the killing of innocents, despite his reluctance to impose his religious beliefs on others.

A great deal of attention has been paid by our colleagues in the public press to a few who may have disappointed the governor and let him down.

But he’s also had some very intelligent and able counsellors on his quest for good and effective government: the classy William Mulrow … Michael DelGiudice … Steven Cohen … Joe Spinelli … John Marino … Rick Cotton … Alphonso David … and the late Andrew Zambelli.

We’ve been quoted in national journals that “It’s not easy being Mario Cuomo’s son.”  It’s not at all easy when a prominent newspaper – the Boston Globe – calls your Father “the great philosopher statesman of the American nation.”  Nor is it easy when a family friend Tony Bennett, the last of the great romantic crooners, tells his audiences, “I’ve sung for five presidents of the United States … Mario Cuomo is the greatest man I ever met.” I mean that’s heavy, very heavy stuff to lay on a young man who is in the “family business.” 

And then you have Joe Biden who is a politician the way the men of our father’s time imagined them to be: “I’ve been in politics since I was 19.  But the minute I saw Mario Cuomo … I knew he was better than I was.” 

So he is a son and heir of Mario Cuomo and in his best moments Andrew resembles his father of sainted memory.

Listeners to these radio stations know of our enthusiasm and admiration for President Trump. While none can deny Andrew’s use of the bully pulpit which attends the governor of New York … one can only hope Andrew will continue to devote his remarkable creativity and energy and his considerable talents to the $168-Billion enterprise over which he now presides and focus on the welfare of the 20-million souls in his daily care and keeping.

We cringe when we see him marching in patriotic parades in Chappaqua with Bill and Hillary Clinton.  And it doesn’t exactly win points when the Governor seems always to be accompanied by so many outriders and security people at every event.  And the glib, booster-like slogans plastered on the podium often distract from the message and the worthwhile things he is trying to achieve.

And it’s perhaps a small thing … but to his great credit Andrew ordered that his own name not greet motorists on the many highways and byways leading into the Empire State. Every other governor before him couldn’t resist those “Welcome to New York State (fill in the name), Governor.”

We know little of his Republican opponent Marc Molinaro who certainly didn’t hit it out of the ballpark when he had the opportunity to debate the Governor provided by our friends Marcia Kramer and Rich Lamb of WCBS-TV. 

Indeed Stephanie Miner, the former mayor of Syracuse who, for a time, also headed the State Democratic Party, has been quite the most impressive among those others who aspire to lead our state.

Andrew is who he is. Everybody knows he’s dynamic and driven. But our recent interview with the governor showed him to also be a brilliant, introspective and altogether thoughtful fellow … qualities he often seems reluctant to reveal.

To get a grip on what Andrew is really about … read the piece posted on Thursday by the Times gifted political writer Shane Goldmacher, himself a great student of the Cuomos – pere et fils. 

He may not have Nelson Rockefeller’s charisma and ease with retail politicking … or his father’s graceful brilliance and beautiful soul … but no one has ever worked harder as governor.  No one.  Period.  No one.

In our far-ranging, recent interview, we asked the governor if he wanted to be loved … or respected.  With the facile brain inherited from his father, he quickly replied, “I want to be loved by those I respect. 

In case you haven’t figured it out … our stations have tremendous respect for Governor Andrew Mark Cuomo.

And, God forgive me … I’m afraid we do love him as well.

Thus our Whitney Global Media radio stations WVOX and WVIP enthusiastically and with great confidence – and affection – endorse the Democratic candidate: Governor Andrew Cuomo for governor of New York.

He’s a damn hard worker.

And he’s Mario Cuomo’s son.

This is William O’Shaughnessy.

Remarks of Governor

Andrew M. Cuomo

at

Central Synagogue Interfaith Service

New York City

October 30, 2018

We gather tonight on a somber moment, because this is a dark and frightening time in our nation. Our better angels are being overpowered. The character of America is being perverted. And the power of hate is overtaking the power of love. 

We mourn and embrace the families of the 11 victims in Pittsburgh and grieve with them. We mourn and grieve for the African American community in Kentucky. We suffer with those who endured the anxiety and threats of mail bombs last week. 

But we would not be here tonight if these were isolated incidents. They are not. There is a frightening pattern developing on many levels of American society. Anti-Semitic incidents have increased 57 percent nationwide. Neo-Nazi groups have increased 22 percent in this country. Nativists and white supremacy groups are on the rise. At the demonstration in Charlottesville in August, 2017, members of the Ku Klux Klan felt so empowered they didn’t even need to wear hoods to hide their faces. The societal fabric of America is stressed and frayed. We gather to pray and to marshal the voices of support and love as an antidote to the forces of division and hate. 

Elie Wiesel said, “There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest.” As Governor, I pray with you this evening. But as Governor, I also state in the strongest terms that we are a nation of laws and we are a state of laws, and we have zero tolerance for discrimination or hate in the State of New York. (applause)

Hate is not protected by our law, not in speech and not in action. Quite the opposite. And our State has the most aggressive hate crimes laws in the country.  And I announced today that we are doubling both our security efforts and our prevention efforts. You have my word as governor that we will stamp out the evil of discrimination wherever it rears its ugly head.  The Jewish community is an important member of the Family of New York and we will protect our family–all together, all united. (applause)

But I am afraid that enforcing the law, while an essential, important step is not the only step. Being prepared to fight the fire is necessary, but we must work to prevent the fires from starting in the first place. 

I feel as if we are standing in a field of dry grass with smoldering embers surrounding us.  And a strong wind is shifting directions. We must stamp out the embers before they become flames and we must reduce the winds of hate that threaten the fields of peace.

There are those who now will wrap themselves in the flag of America and then go out and do violence in the name of America. But they could not be more wrong or more misguided. They do not begin to understand the character of America, and they disgrace the very flag they carry. Our Founding Fathers would be repulsed by these ignorant acts of violence.

In school, one of the first lessons we learn about America is when we are asked to raise our hands to the Pledge of Allegiance. “I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.” Indivisible! With liberty and justice for all. Whatever your religion, whatever your race, whatever your creed, we are indivisible!

Our Founding Fathers anticipated there would be differences because we were born as a collection from across the globe. But we would have, as Jefferson said, “a decent respect” for the opinions of others. One of our Founders’ first acts was to pass a law to make the Motto on the Seal of the United States, “E Pluribus Unum”—out of many, one. It set the tone of unity and commonality. The very same Founders didn’t fear immigration, they embraced it! It was the British government’s bid to block migration to the colonies, that was among one of the reasons for the Revolution and the Declaration of Independence.

The tremendous right to practice your religion in freedom was a powerful magnet drawing many to America. The Pilgrims were separatists from the Church of England.  The Huguenots settled the Hudson Valley. French Protestants were fleeing persecution in Roman Catholic France.  English Catholics under George Calvert colonized Maryland … Quakers in Pennsylvania …  Jewish people in Rhode Island, all seeking the religious freedom established by Roger Williams.

One year into his presidency, George Washington visited a synagogue in Newport, Rhode Island as the First Amendment was being debated. To his Jewish hosts, Washington wrote a remarkable letter.  He reasserted that the Government of the United States “gives no sanction to bigotry, no assistance to persecution, and requires only that the people who live under the protection of the government conduct themselves as good citizens.”

Washington quoted the Bible to remind them that, in effect, they had reached their Promised Land: ‘May the children of the stock of Abraham who dwell in this land continue to merit and enjoy the good will of the other inhabitants—while everyone shall sit in safety under his own vine and fig tree and there shall be none to make him afraid.”  George Washington.

There was no period that tested our unity more than the Civil War. And as the war closed, President Abraham Lincoln pointed the nation to the future in his Second Inaugural Address, saying: “With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation’s wounds — to achieve and cherish a just, and lasting peace.” (applause)

Lincoln’s invoking God is relevant and instructive. We are one nation under God. It is not just our government that instructs peace and tolerance, but our religious heritage as well.

We are gathered in a house of worship today. Christianity teaches us tolerance. Matthew 25 instructs us Catholics to do for the least of our brothers.  Judaism speaks to the concept of Tikkun Olam … to reach out and heal the breach … and the concept of Tzedakah … charity, but, more broadly, the concept of social justice.

Buddhism, Islam, virtually every religion speaks of tolerance, acceptance, and condemns violence.

The victims in Pittsburgh were engaged in a sacred Jewish naming ceremony of a newborn — a bris — celebrating the joy of a new life, only to perish in the face of hate.  

We will not let them die in vain. We must once again, in Lincoln’s words, “bind up the nation’s wounds.”

We must rise above our traditional political divisions. We must refrain from fanning the embers of hate before the flames are out of control. Our American values override our political, partisan differences. Intolerant voices of division must be condemned by all, and not episodically, but consistently. (applause) Not only for public consumption, but genuinely, with personal commitment. Political debate must honor Jefferson’s mandate of civil discourse. Our political leaders must heed this wisdom today.

At this time of chaos, confusion, ignorance and fear … this nation needs a light to follow. And Let that light be the torch that is held by the great lady in our harbor.

Let New York State once again serve this nation as an example to follow. That is the legacy of this great State … throughout history, a beacon of progressive values. We are home to 19 million people from every nation on the globe.  New York State is the laboratory of the American experiment in democracy. We are not threatened by diversity, we celebrate diversity. Generations of immigrants stepped off ships and planes onto our shores. This State has thrived because we have no tolerance for discrimination. Not in our laws, and not in our spirit! (applause)

We are a people of differences, but we have forged community through chords of commonality. This state exemplifies the best of the American spirit.

The Rabbi asks us what we can do. Let us commit ourselves this evening to a constructive course of action. Let New Yorkers exemplify what it means to be a true American patriot.

Let New York show this nation what the flag actually means.

Let us lead forward in the way of darkness. Let us lead as a government, as a community and let us lead as individual citizens. Let us lead this nation at this time of confusion by the power of our example.

There is no place for hate in our State.  And New York lives by the credo: that the most powerful four-letter word is still love.  

This perfect eulogy was given by my friend of many years Joe Spinelli who was a great friend of Mario Cuomo.  Spinelli spoke movingly and passionately about his fellow lawman John Pritchard on October 12, 2018.

Joseph Anthony Spinelli was part of a legendary three-man FBI squad with Pritchard and Louis Freeh (Spinelli became New York State’s Inspector General under Mario Cuomo, Louis Freeh became a Federal Judge and Director of the FBI).  John Pritchard was not only a Special Agent in the Bureau, he also served as Inspector General of the MTA and Police Commissioner in Mount Vernon, NY during an illustrious career in law enforcement. 

My name is Joe Spinelli, and I’ve known John for over 40 years and had the privilege to be John’s partner in the FBI for almost 7 years.

Normally when I address a group in any forum I like to speak extemporaneously, but not today. I wrote my thoughts down today, because I did not want to omit anything.

When Anne requested I speak today I was honored.  And yet I knew this would be difficult, because grief affects us all and does not discriminate.

I have never considered John to be just a friend. To do so would be an insult to both of us. John will always be my brother, and I loved and respected him as my brother. He was a gentle man and a true gentleman. He earned every accolade bestowed on him, and he gave all he had to be the best at what he did. And he achieved success despite the bias and prejudices he often faced as an African-American.  He did so by the simple eloquence of his example.

John visited me a few months ago in New York and we had dinner. He told me he wanted to say goodbye in person and we told each other how much we loved each other, and I’m thankful I got the chance to tell him how blessed I was to have him in my life.

John told me to please speak at his Memorial Service, but was quick to admonish me to only speak about stories and events in which the Statute of Limitations has expired. Unfortunately, after over 40 years together, I could only come up with three such stories that met that criteria.

In 1976, John was assigned as a new Agent to our Criminal Squad that dealt with fugitives and organized crime. The first time John and I worked together, I had to serve a subpoena on an organized crime member in the meat packing district of New York City. Now this should have been a routine deal. We located the organized crime figure who was not happy to see us, and the next thing that happened- we found ourselves surrounded by six individuals all holding meat hooks! I looked at John and he smiled and said, “I’m not going anywhere.” After I removed the barrel of my B57 from the bad guy’s mouth, and all the meat hooks hit the floor … we successfully served our subpoena. From that day forward, John and I were partners.

In 1979, while riding in a Bureau car in New York City, over the radio came a call “91 new” which meant a bank robbery was in progress. We were two blocks away from the bank and responded. When we arrived at the bank, three African American men came running out of the bank. John and I immediately began pursuing them on foot. Before we got half a block, three white males came out of the bank and opened fire on us. They were the actual bank robbers. And as we took cover John looked at me and with that vintage Pritchard grin said, “You have to stop always blaming the black guys.” We laughed out loud and then were fortunate to apprehend all three of the bank robbers. 

Finally, while I was N.Y. State Inspector General I began the Adopt-a-School Anti-Drug Program in Bushwick, Brooklyn. I would invite various individuals to present on Career Day to the entire school at assembly. John came and totally mesmerized these youngsters. While addressing them he grabbed my right hand and placed it next to his and asked them: “What is the difference between his hand and mine?” Immediately in unison, the students responded your hand is black and his is white. John shook his head no and said: “There is no difference.  You see … Joe and I are brothers.” I will never forget that moment and the reaction and message sent to those youngsters. I also will never forget how proud I was when John asked me to be Joe’s godfather.

Thomas Paine once wrote: “Reputation is what men and women think of us; character is what God and Angels know of us. The greatest legacy one can pass on to one’s children and grandchildren is not money or other material things accumulated in one’s life, but rather a legacy of character and faith.”

When I remember John, and I will for the rest of my life, I will remember his leadership, integrity, valor and impeccable character. He always possessed the confidence to stand alone, the courage to make difficult decisions, and the empathy and compassion to be sensitive to all people. He never feared to choose right over wrong and truth over popularity. He taught me that there is never a wrong time to do what is right. And what you say and do in life defines who you are.  And who you are … you are forever.

Each of us loved John because of this. So tonight when your knees hit the floor … please ask God to love him.

A wise man once wrote that the greatest of all journeys are those journeys that take you home. John is home now, at peace and waiting to one day be reunited with his beloved Anne and his children.

Rest in peace my Brother.

                                      October 12, 2018

A far-ranging interview with Governor Andrew Cuomo … like you’ve never heard him.  He almost sounds like Mario on this one.

Earlier today he spoke with William O’Shaughnessy, Editorial Director of Whitney Global Media’s WVOX, an old family friend of the Cuomo Family. 

His stunningly candid, exclusive interview with Governor Cuomo follows. 

William O’Shaughnessy:

This is Bill O’Shaughnessy with a very special interview.  We switch to his Office in Manhattan for the Governor of New York … Andrew Mark Cuomo.  Governor Cuomo, I’ve known you for a long time.  Your family has meant a lot to me and mine.  Will you trust me to conduct myself properly?

Governor Cuomo:

I always trust you … to conduct yourself properly, no!  But I do have a deep trust for you. And I love how you say Gover-NORE.  And my Father loved how you said Gover-NORE.  And my Father loved you, Bill.  He had tremendous respect and tremendous affection for you, always.  And it was well deserved.  As do I.

William O’Shaughnessy:

Governor Cuomo, how is your Mother, Matilda Raffa Cuomo doing?

Governor Cuomo:

She is indefatigable.  She is just the Energizer Bunny.  She’s doing very well.  She’s staying in touch with all the grandchildren.  She’s calling and she’s remembering birthdays. She’s also picked up, Bill, on the Mentoring that meant so much to her.  She’s doing that on a State-wide basis.  As you know, she was a public-school teacher and she never really stopped teaching.  When we lost my Father and she had that void in her life that she needed to fill, I think, sub-consciously, she re-engaged in Mentoring with an energy that was just unbelievable. I think it was just partially her therapy to deal with the loss. 

Because, as you know, her whole life was my Father.  They were together all the time.  They did everything together.  It’s such a big hole in her life.  You go into the apartment and it’s like a shrine to my Father.  She’s doing the Mentoring.  She’s staying in touch with the grandchildren.  She gives me her commentary on the news accounts on a daily basis.  She’s sharp as a tack. She’s all “sugar,” my Mother. She’s all sweetness, she always has been.  She’s all genuineness, even being exposed to the rough edges of politics for all those years.  She never lost her fundamental sweetness and softness.

William O’Shaughnessy:

Governor Cuomo, your Mother told me something I’d never heard about you. First of all, she calls you the Energizer Governor!  You called her the Energizer Mother!  But she said sometimes you pull yourself out of the frantic, busy, political life and go over and just sit on her terrace. She says you like her potato omelet!    What’s so great about them?

Governor Cuomo:

She makes a potato omelet like no other potato omelet!  (laughter)  It is delicious.  I tell you … when my Father was alive, I went over all the time because he wasn’t well, toward the end.  So I just wanted to spend as much time with him as I could.  I just loved to talk to him as we both did, whether agree with him or disagree with him.  It was just a delightful conversation and always an exciting conversation.  Since my Father has been gone I go over more just to spend time with my Mother. 

There’s a sadness for me when I go there because there is so much of my Father in that apartment.  So many memories.  But she just loves quality time and she loves to cook.  As you know, she always has … in that Italian tradition where the act of loving is eating, you’re around a table.  She does make a phenomenal potato omelet and it is my favorite.  But it’s just an excuse to spend time with her and catch up and to get her to slow down because she’s out every night! She’s doing events and she’s recruiting for her Mentoring program.  I worry about her because she’s not as young as she used to be. 

William O’Shaughnessy:

How old is Matilda Raffa Cuomo?

Governor Cuomo:

I cannot tell you. She is 39 years old.  That’s my story and I’m sticking with it!

William O’Shaughnessy:

Governor, there’s so much to cover.  We appreciate the few moments while we’re in your care and keeping – or rather you’re in ours!  These are not alone challenging times, these are awful, cruel, mean times.  First of all, you won the Primary by a hell of a lot more than people thought you were going to do.  How did the Primary set with you?  It was pretty nasty.

Governor Cuomo:

Well, first of all, these are ugly, ugly nasty times.  People are anxious. They are fearful.  It can bring out the worst of human nature and I’m afraid it has.  I’m afraid the actions of the Federal government actually have made it worse.  I think the President incites people.  I think the President plays on people’s fears and uses it politically.  I think that’s very unfortunate.  The Primary, and when I talk to you, Bill, I think of my Father and the conversations that you guys had, but during my Father’s time there was always an activist-left Agenda for the Democratic Party.

There used to be a group called the NDC – New Democratic Coalition.  They used to harass my Father because he wasn’t liberal enough, believe it or not.  Most people would say he was a great liberal.  Many people would say he was too liberal.  But there was a Left to my Father who complained that he was not left enough.  He would say they were “Professional Liberals” or Professional Political People.  Meaning that they have a valid point of view … but it’s a professional point of view as opposed to a populist point of view. 

I think that’s actually exasperated now – and if I could just take another second on it …  you have a group of political people who are engaged on a daily basis for one reason or another.  They’re running an organization or they are a political reporter or blogger.  And the communication and intensity among them is much higher.  There’s Twitter … there’s Instagram … and the energy they generate amongst themselves is much higher than it has been in the past and some of them then believe that is Reality.  It’s not reality.  That’s their own political reality. 

Reality is what people live day to day who aren’t reading the blogs because they have jobs and they are trying to make ends meet.  And when it came to the Primary, this State is the most progressive state in the United States of America!  Not because a blogger opines.  But because people know it.  People know that we passed ‘Marriage Equality.”  It was a very big deal.  They know that I passed the “Gun Safety Law” … they lived it.  They heard it.  They saw the controversy.  They know that I raised the Minimum Wage to the highest in the country because 2.3 million people got a raise.  That’s how they know. They see it in their paychecks.  They know that we have the best free college tuition for middle class families in the country because they are looking at it for their child.  So I understand the academic attack … but you’re not going to tell the people in this State that I’m not a progressive.  They know differently.

William O’Shaughnessy:

Governor, I don’t want to label you, sir.  But are you a centrist?  Or a progressive … who the hell are you? 

Governor Cuomo:

I am a pragmatic progressive.  Whose definition was that, Bill?

William O’Shaughnessy:

That was your Father, of sainted memory. 

Governor Cuomo:

Think about that for a second.  Pragmatic progressive.  Now this is Mario Cuomo, the greatest liberal … the greatest intellectual politician.  Pragmatic Progressive.  I hated the term, by the way.  No one understands what that means.  And he would say – as only he could say:  If they’re not smart enough to know what it means … I don’t care!   Pragmatic Progressive.  It almost sounded like an oxymoron.  But his point was … you can’t be a progressive if you are not Pragmatic.  There is no academic progressive politics.  Progressive politics happens in actuality.  There is no theoretical Progressive politics. 

Either you made my life better or you didn’t.  Either I have more bread on my table or I don’t.  I don’t want to hear your theory and your intellectual exercise and your academic political analysis.  I want progress in my life because I need it because I’m poor.  I’m a working family … I’m disabled.  Because I’m a victim of discrimination.  So I need progress.  So his point was Progressive needs a modifier.  And the modifier is the words Pragmatic.  Not because it is an oxymoron or inconsistent.  But it is a modifier.  It is the practical Progress.  It is the actuality and the concrete accomplishment of the progressive theory.  That was his point. 

And when you are an executive, you realize very quickly – as opposed to a legislative branch or an academic – to make actual change.  That is much harder. That involves compromise.  It involves nuance.  It involves fashioning a specific solution to a problem.  It is not as easy as just opining or pontificating about absolute idealism.  The pragmatic takes you to a different place.  We now have to get it done.  That means I have to get a piece of legislation passed.  That means I have to talk to Republicans.  That means I have to talk to conservative Democrats.  That means we’re going to have to shift a little bit from the ideal because we live in the real … and that is the pragmatic part. 

He would voice this in the on-going debate he had at that time with the people at the time who were to his left and he would say Look … it’s very easy to be a purist ideologically if you don’t have to get anything done, right?  If all it is about writing a paper on it or giving a speech on it, then it’s easy to advocate for the perfect.  But if you have to get something done as a executive or because you believe people actually need help, and because you actually want to improve the situation, that then introduces the element of pragmatism.  So he was a Pragmatic Progressive.  And that’s what I would call myself.

William O’Shaughnessy:

Governor, first of all, the clock is ticking.  The Democrats, your party, they’ve got to put somebody against President Trump.  I risk our friendship of many, many years.  Is it possible to like Donald Trump – President Trump – and Governor Cuomo?

Governor Cuomo:

Anything is possible!  Can you like both theories … both philosophies?  No.  My philosophy, my theory of government is diametrically opposed.

William O’Shaughnessy:

How so?

Governor Cuomo:

This President delights in division.  He thrives in division.  It’s not just that he thrives in competition … or he thrives in confrontation.  He thrives in division.  He looks to energize people through anger, I believe.  I try to do the opposite.  I try to appeal to people’s better angels.  Now, it’s much easier to appeal to fear as opposed to love. 

Hate is, in many ways, easier to generate than love is to generate. And when people are anxious to begin with, as they are now – they are economically anxious, etc. – it’s easier to give them a target for that anxiety and to vent for that anxiety. And to say it’s them over there.  They are the problem.  The different people are the problem.  You know the different people … people who pray to a different God.  The people with a different sexual orientation.  The people with different skin color.   The people who speak a different language.  There’s the target!  And I believe that’s the course that the President follows. 

Now, Governor of New York, 19 million people from all over the globe, you start to divide us … that unleashes a cancer in the body politic because what you feel everyday in New York is … we are all about differences.  You start to demonize differences … that is incendiary and that is spontaneous combustion where you would make the situation intolerable.  Now is it harder to motivate people by the positive?  Yes.  Is it harder to explain to people that creating a situation where we all do well enures to your personal benefit ultimately. That the concept of community is not just self-lessness but also selfishness.  That you can benefit when others benefit?  Yes. 

That’s a much harder case to make.  Especially when people are angry. 

But that is the case that I preach.  And the President does the opposite.  We had a situation over this past weekend, Bill, for all your listeners who haven’t been able to detect … You are a Republican the last time I checked!  The Metropolitan Republican Club in New York City invites in a group called the Proud Boys … who are the Proud Boys?  They are a hate group.  They are white nationalists.  They are White Supremacists. 

William O’Shaughnessy:

They call themselves Western Chauvinists!

Governor Cuomo:

Western Chauvinists!  What a label!  They have a long history of hateful speech.  They advocate violence.  Metropolitan Republican Club brings them in.  They offer no real explanation.  They said Free Speech … we believe in Free Speech.  So I guess the Republican Party will invite the Ku Klux Klan next week in their continuing series of “Free Speech” scenarios. It’s hateful.  It’s demeaning to who we are in New York.  It’s demeaning to a productive political dialogue.  They invited them.  There was then vandalism and should be prosecuted.  And then there was violence afterwards.

William O’Shaughnessy:

Didn’t you have a message as a “Queens guy” for this group?

Governor Cuomo:

Well, I said that they are a bunch of thugs! 

William O’Shaughnessy:

That’s pretty clear …

Governor Cuomo:

That was as far as I will allow my Queens roots to take me because I try to maintain basic protocol now as Governor of the State of New York.  But these are just thugs.  I also called them that which was also reminiscent of my Queens roots.  But that’s who they are.  It’s incendiary and it is disgusting.  And I believe it was tactical …  I believe to fire up the Republican base for the mid-term elections in November which are very, very important for the Republican Party.  They use the flames of bigotry and racism and sexism to fire up their base.  I believe that’s what they’re doing.  I believe the Metropolitan Republican Club mirrored what President Trump was saying nationally about the importance of the mid-terms and getting out the vote. And it’s a shame because I remember the Republican Party. Nelson Rockefeller, Senator Javits, Warren Anderson … you could have principled political differences.  But the Republican Party was a party of honor and values.  And what we’re seeing now, Bill, this is a different Republican Party.  This is the Republican Party of a brand of extremist conservatives that we haven’t seen before.

William O’Shaughnessy:

Governor, you said that you hold the president responsible.  Do you really mean that?

Governor Cuomo:

I believe the national Republican strategy is to fire up the base.  And the President was saying that the Democrats are bad people and that they’re a mob and they create chaos.  The President was going on this weekend about his take on the Civil War and Robert E. Lee.  The President said after Charlottesville when you had White Supremacists rallying and protestors on the other side and Klu Klux Klan rallying … he said there are good people on both sides.  That, Bill, was – to me – the single most damning statement he’s made.  Because there are no good White Supremacists!  And you should never suggest that to the American people. 

William O’Shaughnessy:

Governor … first of all.  I am almost at a loss for words as I listen to you today.  You are so profound dealing with the great issues. Today I’m listening … and you really are your Father’s Son.  I’ve got to ask, as you prepare to move forward … people are starting to talk about you … I’ll lay it right on the table … for president of the United States.  You’re starting to get into the national dialogue on this thing.  Are you interested?  Would you do it?

Governor Cuomo:

I’m interested in one thing which is running for governor and being the best governor that I can be.  The National Agenda is in many ways the New York Agenda in a way it’s never been before, Bill.   With their now takeover of the Supreme Court and with their legislative agenda, you’re talking about a woman’s right to choose being overturned with Roe v. Wade … you’re talking about gun safety laws  … you’re talking about basic healthcare for people … you’re talking about Criminal Justice Policy … you’re talking about Public Education.  Those are the core issues for New York State. 

You know in the old days, the Federal Government would do defense policy and we’d have a great debate about Defense Policy.  But the State ran state issues.  Today, many of the state issues are going to be decided by Washington and what they do.  So the confluence of the two agendas has never been stronger.

But I’m running for Governor.  I love what I’m doing.  I believe I’m making a difference. And as long as I’m making a positive difference, that’s what gets me out of bed in the morning. 

William O’Shaughnessy:

Governor, I hear them knocking on the door so I’ll be very brief and rap this up.  You’ve given us some beautiful and wonderful stuff.  The book on Andrew Cuomo … on Governor Andrew Cuomo … is that he’s respected.  Even your critics “respect.” He’s got “dynamism.”  Nobody knows the levers of government like Governor Cuomo.  He’s the Doer.  He’s the Mechanic.  You are also the son of a man they called “the great philosopher-statesman of the American nation.”  The Boston Globe said that.  I hear that today.  I hear it in your voice.  I hear it in your thoughtful comments.  Why the hell don’t you talk more like this more often?

Governor Cuomo:

You know, Bill … it was a different time when my Father governed.  They don’t give you more than 30 seconds today.  The intelligence … the substance of government, the theory of government, the philosophy of government.  There’s very little appetite for that now.  I don’t want to get myself into too much trouble.  But we had great reporters back then where you could have a two-hour conversation on an issue before they would write a story and they would think about it and research it. 

We’re in an age of blogs and tweets and frankly reporters who don’t have the background or the time to develop a really substantive piece.  My Father was a brilliant communicator.  He was a brilliant intellectual.  But he also had that pragmatic side.  Part of it, I think, is a reaction to what they said about my Father … because they said that about my Father.  But also remember they said, unfairly – but so much of this business is unfair – but he didn’t accomplish enough, right?  The naysayers – the nasty ones – and I won’t mention any names …

William O’Shaughnessy:

The “dumb blonde argument” – he was so articulate …

Governor Cuomo:

Right … he gave a great speech, but he didn’t get anything done.  He was a great talker – that’s right.  He called it the “dumb blonde!”  You can’t say that anymore, by the way. But he did call it the “Dumb Blonde Syndrome.” 

William O’Shaughnessy:

Sir, let me ask you … as you go forward for governor or president or whatever is in your future Andrew Mark Cuomo … do you want to be loved or do you want to be respected?

Because as I hear you today on this rainy, drodsome day, you’re not really showing this inner, wonderful stuff to many people.  Do you want to be loved or respected?

Governor Cuomo:

I want to be loved by the people I respect!

William O’Shaughnessy:

I’m going to give you the final word, sir.  We’re very grateful to you.  You are your Father’s son.  Thank you ..

Governor Cuomo:

Thank you. Good to talk to you, my Brother Bill.

William O’Shaughnessy, a former president of the New York State Broadcasters Association, was chairman of Public Affairs for the National Association of Broadcasters in Washington.  He has been a point man and advocate for the broadcasters of America on First Amendment and Free Speech issues and is presently chairman of the Guardian Fund of the Broadcasters Foundation of America, the national charitable organization.  He is also a longtime director and member of the Executive Committee of the Foundation. He has operated WVOX and WVIP, two of the last independent stations in the New York area, for 56 years as president and editorial director.

He is the author of “AirWAVES” (1999) … “It All Comes Back to Me Now” (2001) … “More Riffs, Rants and Raves” (2004) … and “VOX POPULI: The O’Shaughnessy Files,” released in January, 2011. He has also written “Mario Cuomo:  Remembrances of a Remarkable Man,” a tribute to his late friend Governor Mario M. Cuomo which has just been published.  He is currently working on his fifth book RADIOactive for Fordham University Press, another anthology with interviews, commentaries, speeches and tributes.

Contact:

Cindy Gallagher
Whitney Media
914-235-3279
cindy@wvox.com