When Ed Koch Was Still Liberal

I cannot give the precise date when I first met Ed Koch. Encountering this unassuming if enthusiastic man, I had no idea that he was going to play a major role in the political history of New York City. Koch was a young lawyer who had been, quite briefly, a member of the Tamawa Club, the stronghold of the “regular” Democrats in the South Village (“Little Italy”) led by boss Carmine De Sapio. That hardly seemed a port of entry for an aspiring young Jewish politician. On...