Roy Cohn’s Alienation

by | Quotes

“Few appointments were ever better calculated to arouse resentment on all sides. Everybody over 26 resented Cohn’s youth. Everybody less clever … resented his undeniable intelligence. Republicans resented Cohn because he was a Democrat, and a noisy one at that. Democrats resented him for “selling out” to a Republican. Many of his fellow Jews resented him because they were tremulously convinced that the whole so-called “Communist issue” contained the seeds of a native fascism and a concomitant anti-Semitism … Many hard-shelled rightists around the country, whose innermost hearts contained a trace (or more) of anti-Semitism, resented him for being a Jew. Finally, it must be conceded that Roy Cohn’s personality is no threat to, say, Bing Crosby’s. Personally wealthy, addicted to flashy clothes, block-long limousines, and dizzy blondes, with an abrupt air that struck many people as intolerably overbearing, Cohn would have been a thorny problem in image-improvement for even the best PR firm; as counsel to the McCarthy committee he was a sort of Abominable-Snowman-in-Residence.”

Source: Special Counsel (1968)

Keywords: biography,law

Author

  • William A. Rusher (1923–2011), publisher of National Review (1957–1988), was a leading conservative spokesman, columnist, and author. He helped draft Barry Goldwater for the 1964 GOP nomination, shaping the party’s future. A Princeton and Harvard Law graduate, he served in WWII, worked in law, and advised the U.S. Senate. In 1989, he became a Distinguished Fellow at the Claremont Institute and remained active in conservative circles until his passing in 2011.

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