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seem to care at all whether Mrs. Moskowitz and I overheard him or not. He trusted us not to tell and I guess we never did. He just took it for granted that we were working on something else and if he had to use the telephone it was all right.
He called up Walker. He said to him, “Jimmy, this is Al Smith. I've got something to tell you, Jimmy. We've decided, after talking everything over, that probably under some conditions we can run you for mayor. Personally I'd rather have you for mayor than any of the people that have been mentioned or that we've discussed. But there are some things we've got to correct.”
There was a pause and Jimmy answered something.
Al said, “You see it's like this, Jimmy. We can never elect anybody in this town who's living like you're living. You're not living with your wife. You haven't treated her right. You're running around. The minute you're nominated for mayor everybody will know that. You know what this town is like and you know what Tammany Hall is like. Strict Catholic boys they are. You can't get away with that. We never can run you for mayor and we won't run you for mayor unless you straighten up your private, personal life.”
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