GENTLEMAN FROM NEW YORK: Daniel Patrick Moynihan - A Biography.

GENTLEMAN FROM NEW YORK: Daniel Patrick Moynihan--A Biography

By Godfrey Hodgson Houghton Miffin Co., $38.00

GODFREY HODGSON, A FRIEND and confidant of Daniel Patrick Moynihan and his family for almost 40 years, frets at the start of this new biography about putting their long-standing friendship at risk by trying to write truthfully. Not to worry. If Moynihan takes offense at this tribute, his skin is even thinner than anyone knew. Gentleman From New York opens with a chapter titled, "The Prophet," and closes with "The Legislator as Magnifico." Hodgson twice quotes journalist Michael Barone's assessment of Moynihan as "the nation's best thinker among politicians since Lincoln, and its best politician among thinkers since Jefferson." Lest anyone miss the point, he throws in the observation by Moynihan's close friend, Sen. Bob Kerrey of Nebraska, that "few people in our history, save Thomas Jefferson, have had as much impact on our nation and our government."

Since Moynihan never was elected president, never ran for president, never was considered for vice president, and yet is favorably compared with two of our greatest presidents, one might conclude that he is an underachiever. Three-quarters through the book, Hodgson reports that "at times in 1978 and 1979 [when Jimmy Carter was foundering in the White House] he did think quite a lot about running for president." But there was the difficulty of running against an incumbent president of one's own party to consider. And if Sen. Edward Kennedy wanted to try it, which he eventually did, his candidacy "might make a Moynihan campaign look trivial by comparison," Hodgson writes.

Then Hodgson reports, as if revealing a state secret, that "several of his friends have suggested to me another personal factor: alcohol. They believe that he did not run for president at least in part because he (and his wife) were aware that he might be betrayed, even humiliated, by talk of his drinking." Hodgson says the key question is whether alcohol has affected Moynihan's performance as a politician or as a public servant. "My own view is that it has not," he says. "Others claim to have seen him staggering. I can only say that I have not, after observing him on a large number of occasions...." He punctuates his defense by paraphrasing Lincoln's order to supply his other generals with a barrel of whatever whiskey Ulysses S. Grant was drinking, coincidentally the same anecdote George Will employed in a tribute to Moynihan some years ago.

It is quite natural for journalists to be protective of Moynihan. As Hodgson astutely notes, Moynihan "is at heart a journalist." Hodgson speculates that, had it not been for the narrow Democratic primary victory over Bella Abzug in 1976 that launched his Senate career, Moynihan might have become the greatest columnist of his day. Moynihan is like George Plimpton, sampling various careers--professor, diplomat, politician--to write, from personal experience, his numerous books and countless articles on the workings of the world. Like the best journalists, he is good at identifying problems before the rest of us. But, Hodgson says, "What was also all too typical was his failure to follow through in political and legislative terms. He spotted a discrepancy, understood its meaning and its importance, educated [others], then stood back, leaving it to others to act ... on his undeniably original perception." Thus, Moynihan has been a harsh critic of presidents, Democrats Carter and Clinton in particular, but probably would not have made much of a president himself.

Anyone who watches "Meet the Press" (moderated by Moynihan's former aide Tim Russert) knows that Moynihan is a master of the sound bite. Calling Clinton's health-care plan "fantasy" and his welfare plan "boob bait for bubbas" certainly wasn't gentlemanly, but it made for good TV. And Moynihan laces his writings and speeches with memorable phrases--"benign neglect" and "defining deviancy down," to cite two--that keep print reporters happy too. Moynihan, Hodgson says, is "a man who speaks out, who dares to think for himself and to say what he thinks, even if it hurts"--even if members of his own party sometimes wonder what uniform he is wearing. No wonder he has more friends among journalists than politicians. Hodgson, director of the Reuters Foundation Program for journalists at Oxford University, is a solid journalist in his own right, whose coverage of the United States has ranged wide and deep. He expertly traces what Moynihan calls the senator's "chance encounters and random walks"--from Harvard professor to subcabinet and cabinet posts under Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, and Ford, as ambassador to India and the United Nations, and finally to the Senate. And at every point along the way Moynihan has left a trail like a tracer bullet. Legendary FBI director J. Edgar Hoover wrote in his own hand, "I am not going to see this skunk." Henry Kissinger wanted Moynihan for the UN job only to conclude later that he was not, in a word, diplomatic. Nixon sent Moynihan a note asking him for a list of 10 books to read.

After their clashes over health-care reform, the day Moynihan stepped forward to endorse the First Lady for his cherished seat in the Senate must have been bittersweet for both of them. Moynihan's wife and campaign manager, Liz, "did not get on well with Hillary Clinton at first," Hodgson says. He reveals that Liz Moynihan's best friend in Washington was Barbara Bush, which helps explain the friction between Liz and Hill, who comes from the brash generation of career women. Moynihan unabashedly trashed Hillary's healthcare plan for trying to be all things to all people. When a Democratic president puts forth a major legislative initiative one might expect the Democratic chairman of the Senate Finance Committee to at least feign support. But going along is not Moynihan's style. Rob Shapiro, who worked for Moynihan from 1981 to 1986 and eventually joined the Clinton administration, observes that Moynihan "always manages to position himself as a critic of the conventional wisdom." For better or worse, that is what has made the Gentleman from New York stand out from the long, gray line of politicians.

TOM BRAZAITIS is senior editor in the Washington bureau of The Plain Dealer and co-author of Madam President: Shattering the Last Glass Ceiling.