Neoreaction a Basilisk by Elizabeth Sandifer

Author:Elizabeth Sandifer
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Eruditorum Press
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

9.

Of the numerous cronies surrounding the Grand Hyatt deal, however, one stands out. The point of the UDC, when it was created in the 1960s, was to develop racially integrated housing. And so there is a particularly rich irony in the fact that one of the key brokers of the deal was Roy Cohn, whose association with the family had begun when he represented them in a federal lawsuit that alleged they were offering different rental terms and falsely claiming to have no vacancies when blacks inquired about apartments in thirty-nine separate buildings across the city.

The significance of Cohn’s mentorship is an understandably popular angle on our subject. His influence echoes on long after his death—Roger Stone and Paul Manafort were both friends of his. And beyond that, Cohn is a legendarily repulsive figure. He was in many ways the archetype of the unscrupulous pit bull attorney—a man never troubled by principles or shame who represented his clients with ruthless bluster and a stunning gift for hypocrisy. But more appealing is simply the bizarre scope of his career. He came to prominence in 1951 when he threatened David Greenglass into perjuring himself testifying against his sister Ethel Rosenberg. This launched him into becoming chief counsel to Joseph McCarthy on the recommendation of J. Edgar Hoover. There he became the primary architect of the Red Scare and helped convince Dwight Eisenhower to ban the federal employment of homosexuals before finally being forced out in disgrace after McCarthy was censured. He returned to New York and continued a law career there, representing at various times the Roman Catholic Church, the New York Yankees, John Gotti, and Studio 54. And then for good measure he posthumously became one of the main characters in Tony Kushner’s Angels in America, which portrayed his last days dying of AIDS and vigorously remaining in the closet, memorably played by Al Pacino in the HBO adaptation. He is perhaps the only character in the tale as singular as the man himself—a ragged scar against the post-War American half-century, and the closest thing to an external explanation that exists.

Cohn was, of course, kicked to the curb as soon as his diagnosis became clear.

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