One buried sentence in a bill gave him New York for 30 yearsWhat I learned about power from LBJ and Robert Moses

Robert Moses never ran for office, yet a clause he slipped into a bill he drafted made New York's bridges, roads and parks run through him for more than three decades.

Moses was New York's master builder: the bridges, highways, beaches and pools were his. What really kept him in place was a clause he buried in a bill: once the bonds were paid off, the authority could issue new ones 'from time to time'.

So an agency meant to build two bridges and dissolve became a giant that could build almost anywhere in New York on toll revenue, and borrow more than the city government itself.

Someone who reads legal fine print more closely than anyone else can weld power shut. The thought gives me a slight chill.