OBITUARY: Daniel Patrick Moynihan, R.I.P.(Obituary)

In the bustling side room of the synagogue where the memorial service for Allard Lowenstein would soon begin, family, speakers, and special friends milled about waiting for the signal to file out to their appointed places. I was chatting with Christopher Dodd when the tall figure came through the door and began to greet participants at the other end of the room. "I've never met Pat Moynihan. Would you introduce me?" Of course, I said, and walked over to where the senator was standing. I introduced the man who had defeated my brother, Jim, for reelection as senator from New York in 1976 -- to the aspirant politician who would defeat brother Jim a few months later in his bid to serve as senator from Connecticut.

All in the family. But the special nature of a Moynihan friendship had been in place a very long time. He went to Washington in l969 to serve as Assistant to President Nixon, and called one day to say he'd like to come up to explain the president's proposal for a family assistance program. . . . Of course. What about joining the editors at dinner, and briefing us jointly? That was a fine idea, and he arrived on a White House jet and spoke of his proposed program to reconstruct welfare policy, giving the poor regular relief and reducing the welfare bureaucracy. Two undergraduates had been invited to come in after dinner to sing and play, on guitar and autoharp, their spirited and lyrical songs. Moynihan was captivated and stayed late to hear more. The next day he sent a long telegram that included a forgotten detail of his welfare program, a compliment to the student musicians, and a request for my wife's recipe for her oxtail soup. His idea for a grand new welfare program withered away, torpedoed by Milton Friedman's testimony that he would certainly favor it provided all other welfare programs were discarded.

When he served as ambassador to India I had a long cable from him (he loved, during his time there and in the U.N., to communicate by Western Union, though never in telegraphese). He had seen the story in the New York Times reporting that, reacting to student protests, I had withdrawn my commitment to give the commencement address at ...