Daniel Moynihan

American senator, ambassador, author and educator. Moynihan rose from the harsh realities of the Great Depression in Manhattan slums to political prominence as ambassador to the U.N. in the Ford Administration and a Senator of New York. An advisor to four presidents, Moynihan was considered the leading authority on urban and ethnic minority issues during the 1960s. His federal report released in March 1965 known as the "Moynihan Report" focused attention on the increasing matriarchal upbringing of the black community, the lack of male authority, inadequate education and the lack of economic opportunities in the black community. Bruised by criticism from the liberal wing of the Democratic Party, the abrasive, combative Moynihan moved his affiliation to a growing neo-conservative movement in the Party. He worked under the Nixon Administration and served as ambassador to India and the U.N. in the Ford administration in 1975. In 1976, he ran for the New York Senate seat and easily won the re-elections by huge margins. By the 1980s, growing disillusionment with the Reagan and Bush administrations, Moynihan moved closer to the liberal fold of the Democratic Party. Known for his political pragmatism, Moynihan worked hard for his senatorial power as the head of the Finance Committee during the Clinton Administration. Moynihan was the oldest of three children of John Henry Moynihan and Margaret Phipps. His father was a reporter for the Tulsa newspaper and moved his family to NYC when Pat was six-months-old. When he was ten, his father deserted the family. His mother worked as a nurse but needed the aid of welfare to help raise her three children. Moynihan and his younger brother Mike sold newspapers in the neighborhood bars and worked as shoeshine boys at Times Square. The family moved around in Manhattan slums from Hell's Kitchen to Harlem. At Benjamin Franklin High School in Harlem his teachers encouraged the boy to apply to college. He graduated in 1943 and went to work as a longshoreman on the Hudson River docks. In 1944, he enlisted in the U.S. Navy and was sent to Officer training at Tufts University where he earned his B.N.S. Degree in 1946. He obtained a commission to serve on the U.S.S. Quirinus and was discharged from the Navy in 1947. Returning to New York, he worked the summer tending bar in his mother's tavern. He went back to Tufts University and received his B.A. degree cum laude in 1948. He continued with his studies at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy and received his M.A. in 1949. Awarded a Fulbright Scholarship in 1950, he went to school at the London School of Economics and Political Science. He went to meetings of the British Labor Party and worked at the U.S. Air Force base in Ruislip, England until 1953. Returning to the States, he became active in the New York Democratic Party. In 1954, he was the director of public relations with the International Rescue Committee. He worked as a staff member of New York's Democratic Governor W. Averill Harriman from 1955-1958. In 1960, he became an active John F. Kennedy supporter after he met the candidate through Harriman. In the Kennedy administration he became the special assistant to Secretary Labor Arthur M. Goldberg. Moynihan moved into the position of the assistant Secretary of Labor for policy planning and research in March 1963. At 36, he became the youngest sub-Cabinet member in the Kennedy Administration. In the spring of 1963, his book "Beyond the Melting Pot" was published. Under LBJ, Moynihan drafted the first anti-poverty program which resulted in Johnson's Economic Opportunity Act in 1964. As a staff member of the Labor Department, Ralph Nader was influenced by Moynihan's concern for automobile safety. In July 1966, Moynihan left the federal bureaucracy for the directorship of the Joint Center for Urban Studies of MIT and Harvard University. After working in the Nixon and Ford Administration, Moynihan won the New York Senate seat in 1976. He won his re-election in 1982 and 1988 with his wife, Liz working as his campaign manager. Moynihan's unsentimental and dry political style is the polar opposite of Bill Clinton, his Democratic president. Moynihan comes across to the Washington power structure as a philosopher-politician. His persona of a quirky, bow-tied professor with the liveliest act on the Hill could easily push legislation and keep good relationships with Republican senators. Feeling that Clinton, when he became president in 1993, did not give him the respect he deserved, he was the first Democratic leader to call for a special prosecutor on the Whitewater scandal. Moynihan married Elizabeth Therese Brennan of Boston on 5/29/1955. She was a secretary in Governor Harriman's office when the two met. They have three artistically gifted children. Their son Tim, born in 1957, is an artist of paper-mache figures. Their daughter Maura is a singer, actress and writer. The Moynihan's youngest son is a cartoonist. The couple avoid the Washington social circuit and prefer life at their upstate New York farm. They go to the local Roman Catholic church, and deny themselves access to a television and radio at their home in the country. Moynihan prefers to keep his early life of poverty in the distance and avoids discussing the topic with reporters and his own kids. He is drawn to British customs and luxuries with his bowler hats, handkerchiefs and custom-made tailored clothes from Savile Row. Moynihan, 6' 4", is known for his impatience and fits of anger on Capitol Hill. He is a heavy drinker who has been visibly and embarrassingly drunk at many Washington events. He limits his smoking to three Marlboros cigarettes daily. A prolific writer with flamboyant rhetoric, he himself is sensitive to criticism. On 1/26/1976, he was featured on the cover of Time magazine. On March 26, 2003, the former four-term Senator died from complications of a ruptured appendix which had been removed on March 11th. Link to Wikipedia biography