Word: dapper
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While personifying some of the worst characteristics of the city hack, O'Neil lacks the political sophistication that usually makes urban machines work. He has no allies, contacts or organizations. Former Boston Mayor James Michael Curley is his idol, he says, and Dapper claims to have been a good friend of Curley's. Representative Frank, perhaps remembering that Curley was once elected from a jail cell, commented, "Curley was a pretty indiscriminate fellow, so it's quite likely...
...other non-white minority groups. To the Irish and other white ethnics with blue-collar jobs and modest neighborhood homes, O'Neil is the man who battles the pro-busers, the suburban liberals and the Yankee businessmen. Members of the gun clubs, American Legion posts and bowling alleys think Dapper is Boston's only honest politician, the one who talks their language. He is a veteran too, and says proudly, "That's why I'm a great American...
Though he calls himself a conservative, O'Neil's politics are exceedingly shallow. His only national connection besides Wallace is John Wayne: he has a poster of Wayne in a cowboy outfit endorsing the Young Americans for Freedom and a postcard addressed to "Dapper" hanging on his office wall. A friend of YAF "When they were kids," O'Neill says he dislikes the John Birch Society although "a lot of the things they said are coming true." During the day I spent with him his only unsolicited comment on national politics concerned Earl Butz: "He shouldn't have resigned...
Before State Secretary of Education Paul Parks, a black, left his post as director of the Model Cities Program in the White administration, he was O'Neil's favorite target. Throughout 1973, Dapper threatened that he would have Parks indicted for stealing $23 million, but no case ever materialized. After Parks left, reform-minded Police Commissioner Robert diGrazia--"The fuckin' Messiah," Dapper says--became his target. O'Neil maintains that diGrazia and his corps of civilian advisors are part of a domestic CIA conspiracy organized through the National Police Foundation. As evidence, he points to diGrazia's friendship with MBTA...
THIS KIND OF BEHAVIOR has made Dapper the Joey Gallo of the City Council. Though he has no allies, O'Neil refuses to make deals or cooperate with the Mayor. "White can shove that patronage up his ass," he says bluntly. While Kerrigan and Council President Hicks have carefully built up their patronage machines and index card files, Dapper performs favors without collecting IOU's. When many Councilors spent over $40,000 in their re-election campaigns, Dapper limited his budget to $1800 and hired no employees. The media has an unofficial black-out on his many charges...