“It’s time to judge him for who he is and what he is doing, rather than forever anticipating what he may become.
This is the story of one test of Mario Cuomo’s government: its ethics”
“On a frigid, lightly snowing night in late January 1917, Marcel Duchamp, John Sloan, and four other tipsy Villagers climbed to the top of Washington Square Arch and declared Greenwich Village a free and independent republic.”
“The essence of the ruling was that Esposito, who has become a caricature of the county party boss, is in fact no boss at all and thus cannot be penalized for breaking state laws that limit the commercial activity of a county leader.”
“In Ed Koch's city, Stanley Friedman and Donald Manes were the twin towers of insider trading, the most powerful of the mayor's men. The just-completed trial record of their crimes is in a sense Ed Koch's third book — a candid account, at last, of his government”
“Witnesses against Friedman called him 'a stand-up guy' who had 'brass balls.' For this he deserves a certain grudging respect — and about 10 years in prison”
“They were amazed, those young women who had been meeting in small groups or taking part in small actions for months. No one of them would have dared to say before that evening that the women's liberation movement had 20,000 members in New York City alone.”
“The fact is that Koch has protected Bess Myerson because he has long recognized that there is no way that a damaged Myerson wouldn’t also damage him. And perhaps turn on him”
“The Friedman records, seized by the feds early last year, unveil the machinations of a remarkable range of prominent New Yorkers — from mobsters like Tony Salerno and Tommy Gambino to publishing giant Si Newhouse and developer king Donald Trump”
“Ed Koch, who first achieved fame by conquering Tammany Hall boss Carmine DeSapio in the early 1960s, has become DeSapio, the personification of patronage, conflicts of interest, and cynical abuse of the public trust”
“As in a colony, the Bronx's leadership positions are all held by outsiders (who are also white males), including the office of Democratic county leader, the borough presidency, the office of the district attorney, the Surrogate, and the majority of seats on the Democratic County Executive Committee”
