Capital New York

F.B.I. destroyed file on Arthur Ochs Sulzberger, 'Times' publisher behind the Pentagon Papers

It is surprising that the Bureau’s found insufficient historic value in the information it collected on the person whose decision to publish secret documents led to an unprecedented federal injunction to stop a newspaper from publishing an article and a Supreme Court decision that, to quote Sulzberger’s obituary, “established the primacy of a free press in the face of a government’s insistence on secrecy.” More

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By John R. Bohrer

George Romney almost got speaking lessons from George C. Scott

Fifty years ago this month, Shakespeare in the Park went up with its first production and Michigan’s George Romney, father of Mitt, undertook his first major campaign.

For a brief moment, the two crossed paths. Their nexus was George C. Scott, the iconic star of Patton and Dr. Strangelove. More

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By John R. Bohrer

First draft: When young Robert Caro trailed President Lyndon Johnson

The Passage of Power, the fourth volume in Robert A. Caro’s epic “The Years of Lyndon Johnson,” comes out on Monday, with a title that refers to the book’s two halves—the passage of power from Lyndon Johnson as he is exiled to the vice presidency, and the passage of power to Johnson after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.  

It is also the biography of a man in passage. Each of Caro’s previous works contain a strong sense of place: New York (The Power Broker) Texas (The Path to Power and Means of Ascent) and Washington (Master of the Senate). The Passage of Power has no such foothold. It is six hundred pages of transition, a book en route.   More

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By John R. Bohrer

What J. Edgar Hoover and the F.B.I. thought they knew about Tom Wicker of the 'Times'

In the early 1970s, the Federal Bureau of Investigation considered it pertinent biographical information that The New York Times’ Tom Wicker suffered from “mental halitosis.” They qualified the diagnosis with “apparently.” More

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By John R. Bohrer

'Mad Men' wasn't any crueler to George Romney than John Lindsay was in real life

Tagg Romney was right: "Mad Men" did mock his dead grandfather George. But then, so did George's fellow liberal Republican, John Lindsay.

The "Mad Men" episode in question is set in the summer of 1966, and Henry Francis, the show's fictional aide to New York City’s mayor, says his boss will not go to Michigan because “[Governor] Romney's a clown and I don't want him standing next to him.” More

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By John R. Bohrer

How lucky Pat Moynihan could have gone all the way

The late Daniel Patrick Moynihan once said, “Almost everything that has happened to me has taken place by chance.”

Moynihan, who would have turned 85 today, rose from the floorboards of Depression-era Manhattan tenements to author 18 books, become one of New York’s longest serving United States senators, and sit in the cabinet or sub-cabinet of four successive American presidents—the only person ever to have done so. “Chance encounters, random walks,” he called them. This was an Irish Catholic’s way of saying he was lucky. More

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By John R. Bohrer

Romney and his backers tease Obama for golfing, but no leader played more than Mitt's dad

The Romney campaign even has a website dedicated to how many holes this president has played during his administration. Which is interesting, because George Romney may have played more holes than any sitting governor in American history. More

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By John R. Bohrer

Chris Christie does a gay-marriage dance, and New Jersey Democrats stand still

With a bill to legalize same-sex marriages making its way to his desk, New Jersey’s Republican governor made a play last week for both the primary and general electorates. Instead of simply reiterating his promise to veto the bill, Christie called for a voter referendum to coincide with the 2012 presidential election, akin to California’s Proposition 8. More

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By John R. Bohrer

The time Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. tried to get President Kennedy to help save the 'New York Post'

Two memos from the president's special assistant from March, 1962 show he urged Kennedy to support a group of buyers that would cut out David Karr, "who was once a communist" from taking over the New York newspaper (which would have been a "calamity"). More

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By John R. Bohrer

Jimmy Breslin writes a history book, still thinks history writers should be buried

The last thing Jimmy Breslin wanted to be was a history writer. But then apparently there were some people who didn’t know who Branch Rickey was. Didn’t know that he ran the Brooklyn Dodgers and signed Jackie Robinson, integrating professional baseball before the civil rights movement could even get its shoes tied. More

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By John R. Bohrer