Word: meaney
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...politics with equal, because measured, intensity. While still a freshman in law school, he ran for the newly established Brookline Redevelopment Authority, a body reflecting the old suburb's continuing resistance to rapid urbanization. He was defeated, despite the skilled campaign work of a fellow law student, F.X. (Fran) Meaney...
...coordinated their movements, agreed on slates to bring their joint efforts to bear for everyone's benefit. Sometimes one would defer to another, as Sumner Kaplan did to Dukakis by opening up his own seat on the legislature for his protege to succeed him in 1963, or when Fran Meaney left another candidate's campaign to help Dukakis. The first break in this code came in 1969 after Dukakis had agreed to run for attorney general against Elliot Richardson while Beryl Cohen, an ally from his high school days, would run for Lieutenant Governor. When Nixon took Richardson to Washington...
...that. What they failed to anticipate was that Dukakis would not be sure that even they were as good as he needed. Even legitimate dealings with state agencies were suspect if engaged in by his friends -- Sumner Kaplan was denied a judgeship for which he was clearly qualified. Fran Meaney would have been denied an equally justifiable contract if he had not accepted it at the price of Dukakis' friendship. Michael expected his friends to be above mixing public service and any private gain. Even minor political favors -- summer jobs, special license plates -- were ostentatiously abolished; a lottery...
Dukakis has learned well how to bury his feelings. In early campaigns his manager, Francis Meaney, used to stand close behind him and remind Dukakis to tell voters he needed them. The candidate was always too impersonal. Even with longtime friends, Dukakis has kept up his guard. They have to be satisfied with the little he gives. "The electrons," says a friend of 25 years, "flow only one way." The most personal kind of event, like the suicide attempt years ago of his older brother, is stowed so deeply that Dukakis says he cannot remember what happened...