he George Mitchell-for-vice-president bandwagon is out of the barn and rolling in Al Gore's direction, and the mayor of Boston is whipping up the horses.
Mayor Tom Menino is convinced Mitchell's congressional experience and international savvy will confirm and expand upon the stature gap he hopes will become evident by election day.
And, even better for Boston on this sainted day, Mitchell is half-Irish. ''He has the stature, the experience, the reputation he's carved in international relations, where he was so effective in the Northern Ireland situation,'' enthused Menino, who, as Dame Boston's first I talian-American mayor, is of necessity somewhat of an expert on Irish politicians and even half-Irish politicians.
As former majority leader of the US Senate, Mitchell knows the inside-the-Beltway deal as well as anyone. But the former senator's personality is what seals the deal for Menino, and a number of mayors whom Hizzoner is buttonholing.
''He has the ability to bring people together,'' said Menino over the phone yesterday. ''And he has the status to give the Democrats a little extra in this presidential contest.''
Menino went to Tennessee Monday and Tuesday to sit with Gore and review the party's prospects for the fall. Menino did not try the hard-sell with Gore directly; you don't do it that way, as the vice president was preparing to lay informal claim to the nomination after the latest primaries and caucuses.
But Menino left the Gore senior staff with no doubt as to his preference. Gore gets to decide on his running mate two weeks after Bush makes his choice known to the GOP convention delegates in Philadelphia in early August.
Menino said he tossed Mitchell's name out in front of a bunch of other US mayors at a Washington luncheon speech Monday, and Mitchell's name elicited approval from a number of them. Mitchell's success in bringing the warring factions of Northern Ireland to the peace table is the type of skill badly needed in the nation's capital, he said.
''You really see that when you mention the idea to other people. Anybody you mention it to, you get a positive response. Why? He's one of those individuals who are special in our society who have come out of public life. People look up to him, they respect him. Because they think that whatever he's doing is for the common good.''
And as a practical political consideration, added Menino, Mitchell's age could make him more acceptable to the rest of the Democratic leaders. Mitchell will turn 67 on Aug. 20, the week after the convention. At that age, it's highly unlikely he'd run for president himself in four or eight years.
''So it doesn't clog up the political landscape,'' is the way Menino phrased it. But most of all, he emphasized, ''It gives Gore what he really needs right now - he makes it a special ticket.'' To some Democrats, Mitchell is about the closest thing the Dems have to Colin Powell, the retired general who tops every Republican's dream list of running mates.
Mitchell, still active in two law firms, is remarried and has a young son. He often jokes about his assertion that being commissioner of baseball is the best job in America.
The notion that presidential nominees pick their running mates to deliver an important swing state or a desirable chunk of democraphics is now old style politics, claims Menino. By that yardstick, Mitchell would deliver only Maine, with four paltry electoral votes, or New England's three dozen.
''That was 20 years ago,'' he said dismissively. ''People don't vote anymore on Democratic or Republican labels. They look at the individual: What does he stand for? That's what explains John McCain.''
There is no question that McCain came out of nowhere to push Bush hard in the early primaries before running out of gas, money, and traction.
The independent and crossover Democratic voters who flocked to the McCain banner did so not because they were in ideological lockstep with his various positions. Rather, argued the mayor, they were attracted by McCain's personal qualities: patriotism, honor, sacrifice, courage, independence. It's the man and not the laundry list that sways moderate voters sloshing around in the middle of the political spectrum, insisted the two-term mayor, the first to be reelected without opposition in more than a century of fractious Boston politics.
Bush has become cool to the idea of picking McCain, the Republican with the most evident ability to attract votes outside the GOP base. If Bush had the wit and the self-confidence to choose McCain, the pressure would be on Gore to match the senator's appeal. Mitchell would be one choice.
Another might be the junior senator from Massachusetts, John Kerry, a decorated Vietnam veteran, a rugged campaigner, and a television debater of top quality, as witness his 11 hour-long televised jousts with the redoubtable Bill Weld in the '98 Senate fight.
But Menino is going for Mitchell and is trying to enlist some of his fellow mayors in the cause.
David Nyhan is a Globe columnist.
