Professor Moynihan Poem by gershon hepner

When James Buckley called the New York Senator
“Professor, ” Moynihan replied:
“Mudslinging has begun, ” “professor, ” just like “minotaur, ”
denoting bullshit not yet dried.

In the Talk of the Town in the December 15,2008 New Yorker, Lauren Collins discusses the recording of Nixon (Whittier ’34, Duke Law ’37) excoriating Henry Kissinger (Harvard B.A. ’50, M.A. ’52, Ph.D. ’54) :

NIXON: The Ivy League Presidents? Why, I won’t let those sons of bitches in this White House again. Never, never, None of them. They’re finished. The Ivy League schools are finished…Henry, I would not have had them in. Don’t so that again…They came out against us when it was tough…Don’t ever go to an Ivy School again, ever. Never, never, never.

Collins writes that Amy Gutmann, the president of Penn, recalled that when in 1976 James Buckley referred to Daniel Patrick Moynihan as “Professor.” Moynihan replied: “The mudslinging has begun.”

12/10/08