From a Wash. perspective, the 'Best Blizzard Story Ever'



O'Donnell

A former Senate staffer, Lawrence O’Donnell of MSNBC offered a gem of a commentary last week when he shared “The Best Blizzard Story I Have Ever Heard.” Fellow legislative aides – current and former – will certainly appreciate this tale.

In the nightly “Rewrite” segment on his TV show, O’Donnell told the story of the late NBC News icon Tim Russert’s humble start in politics. Fresh out of law school, Russert volunteered for the 1976 campaign of legendary Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, a former Harvard professor. After Moynihan’s election win, Russert became head of the senator’s Buffalo office in the future newsman’s beloved hometown.

Russert

Just three weeks later, a massive blizzard (even by Buffalo standards) hit and Russert sprang into action. He convinced the Washington office to get Moynihan up to Buffalo quickly to make his presence known and to get the senator talking to media about the crippled city’s need for federal assistance.
Moynihan later insisted that Russert, a political rookie, come with him back to the Capitol and follow through on the push for aid.
In Washington, Russert doggedly arranged more press briefings that kept the story in the spotlight. He wrote a letter to the president and, though he hadn’t showered in days, the haggard Russert personally delivered the letter to the White House, to Chief of Staff Hamilton Jordan.



Moynihan

Liz Moynihan, the senator’s wife, spotted a talent and told Russert to take a new post as her husband’s Washington press secretary. Russert returned to Buffalo, gathered his things, and drove back to Washington in his 1972 Gremlin. From there, he eventually became Moynihan’s highly successful 1982 campaign manager and later his chief of staff. O’Donnell recalls that in a 1984 strategy session for his presidential campaign, Gary Hart famously remarked, “Get me a Russert.”

Yet, Russert conceded years later that he was often uncomfortable in his early days working on Capitol Hill because Moynihan’s staffers were serious, highly intellectual Ivy Leaguers. Russert’s blue-collar roots spanned back to the days when he worked as a garbageman to earn money for college tuition.

Russert and Moynihan
 in the early days

But Moynihan, who once shined shoes in Times Square to make a living, quietly valued his spokesman’s “political instincts and street smarts,” according to O’Donnell. When Russert confessed his insecurities to the senator, Moynihan burst out laughing.

“Let me tell you,” he said to his trusted aide, “what they know, you can learn. But what you know, they will never learn.”

Love that quote. Love that story.