Tim Russert among the elite graduates of the Moynihan ‘Seminar’

The network that gave Tim Russert his start in politics and media was called “the Seminar” by those who graduated from it.

And what a rarified education - and set of connections - it provided.

Tim Russert

Russert was one of the young, mostly Irish Catholic men who got their first break in politics by gaining admittance to the Moynihan ‘Seminar,’ as members called it - that is, getting a job with the late Daniel Patrick Moynihan, the bow-tied New York senator who was famous for his erudition as well as for his unrelenting demands on his staff.

That staff was “an extraordinary mix of politicos, intellectuals, and mischief makers,” said Michael McCurry, who was hired by Russert, and who later became press secretary to former President Bill Clinton.

“You could have a great discussion with those who passed through the Moynihan Seminar. . . or you could have a bar room brawl. But there is no question he left an imprint on every single one of us.”

Indeed, the people who worked for Moynihan during his 24 years in the Senate, from 1977 to 2001, cut across a wide political and cultural swathe – united only by the fact that they were considered “smart lads” by their boss.

Besides Russert and McCurry, there was Lawrence O’Donnell, who went on to become the Emmy-award winning West Wing writer and producer; Kevin Sheekey, now political svengali to Michael Bloomberg and deputy mayor of New York City; and Bill Cunningham, now a managing director of Dan Klores Communications. (Several of those men are expected to attend Russert’s funeral in Washington Wednesday.)

There was William Kristol, who went on to found The Weekly Standard, the conservative magazine, and write an op-ed column for the New York Times; Elliot Abrams, who later worked for Ronald Reagan and who, after being prosecuted and then pardoned for his role in the arms-for-hostages scandal known as Iran Contra, became George W. Bush’s deputy national security adviser; and also Chester E. Finn, one of the education policy gurus of the conservative movement.

There was Richard K. Eaton, who became a U.S. International Trade Court judge; Peter W. Galbraith, who became U.S. Ambassador to Croatia in the Clinton Administration; Paul Browne who became New York City deputy police commissioner; Stephen Hess, who advised Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter; and Lee Rainie, a founding director of the Pew Internet & American Life Project.

The men who came out of that experience say that Moynihan taught them lessons that have served them well in politics and in life.

“He taught me rapid response - he’d often call when in New York City on weekends to ask what was in the Washington Post, usually at (ugh!) around 8 a.m.,” McCurry recalled. ” ‘Reaction time, lads! Reaction time is everything,’ he’d bellow.”

But there were other, subtler lessons, some of which made an indelible impression on Russert, among others, who was said to do a brilliant imitation of his boss.

“Many Moynihan alumni inherited his intolerance of government secrecy, political correctness, and posturing among the academic elites,” recalled Browne, now of the New York City Police Department.

And for all his academic accomplishments, the senator had no tolerance for obfuscation, perhaps owing in part to his working-class origins in Hell’s Kitchen.

“Moynihan taught us to think and write clearly, and to avoid hyperbole,” Browne said. “He hated it. When Jimmy Carter described the US tax code as ‘a disgrace to the human race,’ Moynihan went to the Senate floor and said, ‘Pol Pot was a disgrace to the human race, not the tax code.’”

As for telling him you couldn’t accomplish something, that simply wasn’t acceptable, Browne said.

“In those pre-Google days, no library or other source of information stayed closed – day or night – to those of us on a mission for Daniel Patrick Moynihan,” he said.

Tweet This! Share on Facebook

Click here to sign up for the Muckety Newsletter

• Russert and neocon William Kristol linked by Moynihan campaign - June 17, 2008
• Tim Russert, admired journalist and Buffalo Bills fan, dead at 58 - June 13, 2008
• Creator of the infamous Willie Horton ad sets his sights on Obama - April 25, 2008
• Media and politics are in Grunwald genes - February 23, 2008
• Williams takes Solis Doyle’s job with Clinton campaign - February 11, 2008
• NBC political director Chuck Todd an unlikely on-air hit - July 1, 2008
• Jake Siewert joins his friend Tim Geithner at Treasury - May 8, 2009
• Kennedy’s staff was unequaled - August 28, 2009
• Caroline Kennedy’s ties to Bloomberg may hurt her prospects - December 25, 2008
• David Plouffe is unseen hand behind Obama’s winning campaign - June 18, 2008