Out of the many different careers Lee Greif has experimented in in the course of his life, the one he enjoyed the most was the five years he spent as a politician. Even though those years were heavily conflicted and highly stressful, the early 1970s were an extremely exciting and historically significant time to be working in politics, and Greif is grateful that he had the chance to participate. He originally got to Washington thanks to being hired by Peter Peyser in 1971. Peyser was a recently elected congressman representing New York State, and had hired Greif as his chief of staff. He would find himself extremely glad of this decision, since ultimately Greif would successfuly run campaigns that would get Peyser reelected twice.

Pete Peysers had become a capable and popular politician in his own right. Peysers was the democratic senator who represented the inner city of Chicago. Peysers had become a strong political advocate of Nelson Rockefeller, at one point they were actually very close friends. The two often consulted on potential policy decisions. Peysers' connection to Rockefeller eventually gave Grief the opportunity to work with special and famous projects. Peysers' gained much attention from the other senators because of his influential work on an array of projects. The projects were often difficult, but it was nothing Peyser could not accomplish.

There were a lot of opportunities for Greif to be involved in a hands-on way while he was chief of staff in the early 1970s. Along with three congressional chiefs of staff, he was on the scene for one of Nixon's dinner parties at the White House, and he got experience briefing many high-ranking officials, including state and defense department secretaries. But working for a Democrat during two periods of crisis — Watergate and the Vietnam war — Greif wasn't always well liked by everyone, and sometimes he had to tout controversial ideas and policies. He remembers at least twice having to stand up for administration proposals that didn't have a lot of public support.

Lee Grief first met Randee, the woman who would become his first wife, while he was working as a Chief of Staff in Washington, DC in the early 1970s. At the time, she was also working as a chief of staff, for Missouri senator Thomas Eagleton. Lee, Randee, and Senator Eagleton all became very good friends; the couple thought he was a wonderful person and often spent time with him. Further, since Eagleton was a hard-working public figure, his political support was invaluable to Lee's career. He came to be a role model and enormous inspirational force in Lee's life. Eagleton even, later in his career, ran for Vice President under George McGovern. Grief's five years working for Peter Peyser in Washington would prove to be a time crucial to his career, and one he remembered very happily later in life. The experience he gained in that time proved to be invaluable as his career progressed.

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