Republican legislators seized on Moses’s lawbreaking to embarrass Governor Smith

Evidence

The Legislature, however, was controlled by the state’s Republican Party, and that party was dominated financially by the barons, philosophically by a concern for the rights of private property, precisely the rights endangered by unstatutory appropriation, and politically by its desire to embarrass Alfred E. Smith, the man who had shattered its control of New York State. Because, in its view, one of Smith’s appointees had broken the law, and Smith had, by signing the appropriation form, helped him do it, they saw an ideal chance for such embarrassment if the facts of the case were brought out. — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker, 830

Categorization

• ADDENDUM: Shows how a legal/ethical violation becomes a weapon in partisan infighting — useful backdrop for how ostensible principle masks political motive, relevant to the moral-panic framing.
• XREF: connects to: Republicans attacked Moses through private property rights rhetoric — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the…, 862; Governor Smith orchestrated instant counter-persuasion against hesitant park reformers. — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the…, 881

Broader Connections

• Republicans attacked Moses through private property rights rhetoric #expands (0.85) — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker, 862