Not that it matters much, but the correct push-pull thing was between Podhoretz and Ginsberg, not Horowitz....
Allen told me that he had indeed imagined Podhoretz' voice in his head when he was framing political arguments. To him, Podhoretz represented the intellectual opposition to much of what Allen believed in; he felt if he could sharpen his ideas against what he imagined Podhoretz would say, he would be well-armed to deal with all other opponents. As a Buddhist who believed in love and forgiveness, Allen struggled with his demonization of Podhoretz, and decided to define him in his mind as a "teacher" since Podhoretz' opposition, real and imagined, strengthened his clarity and conviction. Allen mentioned this in a couple of interviews in the last decade of his life and contacted Podhoretz, whom he had not seen in almost forty years, but Podhoretz refused to see him.
(Danny Goldberg, Tikkun Magazine, May, 1999)
Chuck Grimes