Republicans and the media pundits thought Democrats would lose up to 30 House seats and 4 to 6 Senate seats. Instead, Democrats won seats in the House, the first time since 1822 that a President's party had done so in his second term.

共和党和媒体权威人士认为民主党会在国会中失去30多个席位，在参议院中也会失去4到6个席位。然而，民主党在国会中赢得了席位，这是自1822年以来，在总统第二任期中其所在党第一次出现这种情况。

Another surprise soon followed. Three days later, Friday, November 6, Senator Moynihan taped an interview announcing that he would not run for a fifth term. The interview was to be aired on Sunday morning, but the news leaked early.

另一个惊喜紧随而来。三天之后，11月6号，星期五，参议员莫伊尼汉在在一段录音采访中宣布他将不会参加第五次连任竞选。这段采访将会在周日播放，但是消息被提前走漏了。

Late on Friday night, the White House operator patched through a call from Representative Charlie Rangel, the veteran Congressman from Harlem and a good friend.

星期五晚上，白宫接线员接进查理.兰格尔代表的电话，查理.兰格尔是来自哈林区的一位老国会议员，也是我的一个好朋友。

"I just heard that Senator Moynihan announced he is going to retire. I sure hope you'll consider running because I think you could win," he said.

“我刚听说参议员莫伊尼汉宣布他将退休了。我真得很希望你会考虑竞选，因为我觉得你可以赢，”他说道。

"Oh, Charlie," I said. "I'm honored you would think of me, but I'm not interested, and besides, we have a few other outstanding matters to resolve right now." "I know," he said. "But I'm really serious. I want you to think about it."

“哦，查理，”我说，“你认为我可以我真得感觉很自豪，但是我不感兴趣。而且，我们现在有几件别的更重要的事情亟待解决。”他说，“我知道，但是我是说真得，我希望你好好想想考虑一下。”

He may have been serious, but I thought the idea of running for Senator Moynihan's seat was absurd, although this wasn't the first time it had come up. A year earlier, at a Christmas reception at the White House, my friend Judith Hope, the chair of the New York Democratic Party, mentioned that she didn't think Moynihan would run again. "If he doesn't," she said, "I wish you would run." I had thought Judith's comment was farfetched then and I still thought so.

他也许是认真的，但我认为去竞选参议员莫伊尼汉的席位的这个主意，对我来说有点荒谬，尽管这种想法不是第一次被提出，一年前，在白宫的一次圣诞接待会上，我的朋友兼纽约民主党主席朱迪思·霍普就对我说，她认为莫伊尼汉不会再参加竞选了，“如果他不竞选了，”她说，“我希望你会去竞选。”我当时认为朱迪思的想法有点不着边际，我现在也仍然认为是那样。

I had other things on my mind.

因为我心里还有别的事情。