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Now, Peter Berle in the Congressional race, seeking to be the Congressional candidate and having a lot of pull with the Liberal party, and when I was given the designation, it was basically because of my having come out for Lindsay and then being the City Council candidate designated by the Liberal party, they liked me. And Henry Stern had become a very close friend, and he had worked very hard to get me the designation, as did Ed Morrison, who was then the county leader. So they gave it to me, and one of the questions that was raised by the Liberals was: what was my position on municipal strikes? And I had a very tough position at that time. My position has subsequently changed not because of any pressures but because I philosophically have come to a different conclusion. But at that time it was very tough and I said, “Send them to jail when they strike. I believe you've got to carry out the law. The Condon-Wadlon Law says go to jail, so you go to jail. They know what they're doing.” That was the thrust of what my remarks were.

Peter Berle heard about that because the Liberal party had endorsed me nevertheless, and so he had Al Shanker and Victor Gottbaum call me separately -- I remember it so distinctly -- at my office. Both conversations went something like this (I'll give you Victor's) “Ed [I didn't really know Victor Gottbaum], I just heard that you are opposed to municipal strikes and support Condon-Wadlin [or the Taylor law, whichever it happened to be at that time].” I said, “Well, Victor, you heard right.” “Well, you know, you have to take the consequences of that. That