Mr. Dinkins said Basil Paterson, who was chairman of his judicial screening panel, had no knowledge of it either.

In 1970, Basil Paterson was more or less thrust on party leaders by black and liberal Democrats.

"They didn't use me," Basil Paterson lamented.

Basil Paterson said he found himself torn by the situation.

Basil Paterson, the former Deputy Mayor, said the past should be forgotten.

Basil Paterson, labor lawyer, political leader in New York (class of 1942).

"We are not just politicians who worked together, but we are friends," Basil Paterson said.

Basil Paterson, a close Dinkins associate, said he thought the Mayor-elect "has to stamp a new image."

"What he thought was right and proper has become a fetish," says his old friend Basil Paterson.

New York has lacked that figure, even though there are figures capable of doing it, like Basil Paterson and Charles Rangel.