Wagner, DeSapio Revive 1961 Dialogue on Bossism

About every ten year, Carmine DeSapio observed yesterday, political winds in a city tend to blow in strange directions, and citizens get an urge to vote against the established leadership, whatever the issues.

The Democratic National committee man from New York said in a speech at the Law School that his defeat by a "reform" candidate as Greenwich party leader had very little to do with charges of bossism. "There were intangible factors" which are hard to understand, De Sapio claimed, that led to his defeat.

He added that most of the self-proclaimed reformers elected with Mayor Wagner were man "without programs," who themselves were "products of the organization."

Speaking on the future of New York politics, the former head of Tammany Hall urged Empire State Democrats to stop fighting over, "who will be Mayor in 1945," and start working for the reelection of President Kennedy.