> [this is almost as hilarious as Henry Kissinger winning the Nobel
> Peace Prize - Breindel was a thuggish right-winger of the lowest sort
> with a taste for heroin]
I interviewed Breindel once, over the phone, for a piece I was doing for the early NY Observer, then under the editorship of John Sicher. The piece, which was supposed to be some kind of pseudo-hit job on Spy editors Kurt Andersen and Graydon Carter, never ran (I was asked to trail these two and find out if they cheated on their wives and what not -- an assignment I refused, though I did interview them as well), but I recall Breindel's hurt tone when talking about the Spy profile of him. It was a nasty but factual piece, filled with his exploits as smack runner for the Kennedy kids, how he was bailed out of bad situations by Daniel Patrick Moynihan and Marty Peretz and given nice cushy jobs. A real affirmative action tale, his.
My friend Jeff Cohen knew him for a time when Breindel hosted the FOX media show that Jeff still does. While he disagreed with everything Breindel stood for, he did like the guy as a person, said he was nice, and even went to his funeral. But then, Jeff always was a careerist sellout.
DP