University of Virginia Library

Alienated Mayor

The effect of all this has been
to make Lindsay the most alienated
of our conventional politicians this
season. It may be just a transient
mood, but the Mayor seems liberated
these days. He acts the way
Robert Kennedy acted in his angry
autumn of 1966. Future events will
probably trap Lindsay into compromises,
like endorsing Richard
Nixon, but right now he is swinging
free.

He attacks GOP leader Gerald
Ford, Speaker Travia, anyone he
things is screwing the ghettos. He
breaks protocol and goes after
America's senior mayor, Richard
Daley, for urging his policemen to
shoot looters. Two weeks ago he
tried to push cautious Otto Kerner
into re-convening the riot commission.
Last week he criticized
Governor Rockefeller's timid urban
program. He spoke to the big
anti-war march in the park, something
McCarthy and Kennedy refused
to do.

Several weeks ago Lindsay flew
to Boston to speak at a $50-a-plate
Republican fund-raising dinner,
and at Harvard the next day.
As the press waited for the 4 p.m.
shuttle to start boarding, they
raided the airport newsstand, which
happened to be loaded with Lindsay
propaganda. A New York
Post columnist praised him for his
sensitive handling of the ghettos.
The Nation nominated him for
President. And New York
published a cover story re-creation
of Lindsay's actions in the
hours following Martin Luther
King's assassination. The Boston
papers were full of Lindsay.