Every time I get thinking it's time to ditch the New York Times for good, they dig up a juicy little news nugget like this one, on what happened forty years ago the last time a New York governor had to appoint a replacement US Senator:
His first choice turned him down. That was John Gardner, a liberal Republican who had just quit as Lyndon Johnson’s Health, Education and Welfare secretary — in part because he considered the cabinet too preoccupied with Vietnam to fulfill the Great Society domestic agenda. Rather than accept Rockefeller’s offer, Gardner remained chairman of the Urban Coalition, a private campaign to transform America’s cities.
Next on the list was Mayor John V. Lindsay, although his appointment to the Senate would return City Hall to Democratic control. The job was widely believed to be his for the asking. But Lindsay was too stubborn — and committed to his own urban agenda — to ask, especially without a firm commitment from Rockefeller. The governor never directly made the offer.
Rockefeller even considered his nephew Jay — a transplant to West Virginia (where he was later elected to the Senate), and a Democrat no less.
Five other names were on a list forwarded by Bobby Douglass, the governor’s counsel: Joseph Wilson, the chief executive of Xerox; Jackie Robinson, the retired Brooklyn Dodger, who was being promoted by Rockefeller’s pollster; former Senator Kenneth Keating, whom Kennedy had defeated; and two congressmen, Ogden Reid of Westchester and Charles Goodell of Jamestown upstate.
And if you're thinking Jackie Robinson? Nah...consider this: how cool would it be to have a senator whose campaign theme song was "Enter Sandman"?
On the other hand, Mo's got at least a couple more good years left. So what's Bernie Williams up to?
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