A Liberal Republicans Could Admire

With great sadness …

The Boston Globe once called him “the great philosopher-statesman of the American nation.” And I can’t do better than that.

My mind drifts back many years to the day a largely unknown New York secretary of state, Mario Cuomo, came by WVOX for an interview. I’m afraid I kept him waiting for about 20 minutes—something he always kidded me about and never let me forget. When making a point during the interview, he looked across the microphone and said, “Look, even a Republican who doesn’t wear socks should be able to understand this.”

We had many late night and early morning conversations—not always about the great issues of the day, but often about our souls, our sons and our daughters, and life in general. I’m absolutely convinced that hundreds of years from today when the dust of centuries has settled over our cities, people will discover some of his magnificent and soaring speeches and say, “There was ... someone.”

His favorite word was “sweetness” ... as in, you can make a community stronger, wiser—and sweeter—than it is.

Although his stature and standing as an icon in the pantheon of liberal Democratic lions is secure for all the ages, he did admire—and was highly regarded by—many Republicans, including me.

He told me he didn’t want anything named for him … except maybe “a stickball alley in some remote section of Queens.”

The governor’s favorite songs were “Stranger in Paradise” and Jimmy Van Heusen and Johnny Burke’s lovely “Polka Dots and Moonbeams.” He also liked Ray Noble’s “Love is the Sweetest Thing.”

He was there for the funerals of my mother, my brother and my stepson. And now I will pray at his.

I loved the man.

William O’Shaughnessy is president and editorial director of Whitney Media.