Word: furcolo
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...Furcolo Criticizes Appointment...
Though Jack Kennedy was far away in Florida, the Kennedy political power swept over Massachusetts last week. From outgoing Governor Foster Furcolo came the curt announcement that "in the interest of promoting party unity" Kennedy's Senate seat would go for two years to Gloucester Businessman (wooden boxes) Benjamin A. Smith II. Two days later Kennedy sent his own final resignation from the Senate to Vice President Nixon, the Senate's presiding officer...
Lame-Duck Governor Furcolo, who has little affection for Jack Kennedy, made it clear by the terseness of his announcement that he was depressed by having to name Smith, and felt powerless to oppose it. Actually, Kennedy had favored Congressman (and Old Harvard Roommate) Torbert Macdonald for the post, hopeful that Macdonald would be strong enough after the two-year interim appointment to make the race for reelection. But with Furcolo resisting a Macdonald appointment (Massachusetts pols were gossiping that the Governor was trying to hold Kennedy up for a big Administration job), Kennedy decided to settle for Ben Smith...
Despite the seeming monolithic character of Massachusetts government, its structure is basically just a colonial saltbox illogically encrusted with the bureaucratic gingerbread trappings of the 19th and 20th centuries. Even Foster Furcolo's bitterest enemies do not accuse him of the despotism for which the colonials always suspected George III's governors; and yet the Governor's Council remains, obstructing the chief executive, duplicating other posts and clogging bureaucratic channels. The counties, too, stayed on unchanged after the Revolution, and only inertia perpetuates their costly and relatively useless existence. Yet not since 1917 has a Constitutional Convention studied these antiques...
Passage of the Furcolo bill would have given the MTA a good Old Colony substitute near Codman Sq. for the extensive Bennett St. maintenance and storage facilities. Lack of such alternate facilities had proven a major stumbling block in previous negotiations between the University and the MTA trustees...