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right to do it, I probably would have to resign, for the very reason that, as I guess I have explained at the outset, I felt from the outset a personal responsibility as editor of the page, that it was necessary for me to preserve the integrity both of myself and the page, to be able to defend anything that appeared on the editorial page of the Times. Otherwise I shouldn't be editor.

Along came the election, senatorial election of 1976. Now, it's not entirely unrelated - the publisher's support for Moynihan is not entirely unrelated to the kinds of things we have been talking about earlier, because Moynihan was certainly more conservatively oriented, although I guess one could find views of every sort in Moynihan's positions over the years. Nevertheless he certainly in '76 had a relatively conservative image. He had just been in the United Nations, been taking what can very loosely be described as a strongly nationalistic position that was not in consonance with what are generally liberal views, and in contrast with Bella Abzug, his principal opponent in that primary, he certainly was conservative. So this is not totally unrelated.

In any case, in the summer of '76, when the Democratic senatorial primary began to loom, I discussed as usual with the publisher the questions of the Times' support for candidates. Whenever there was any doubt or any question at all on the political support, I would of course always talk this out with the publisher. We virtually never had any real disagreement, and in fact, he didn't even bother, worry particularly about our support of the minor candidates. I decided that with my colleagues quite independently. But whenever it came to senatorial or higher, gubernatorial of course or mayoral, presidential