hen Vice President Al Gore needed help these past few weeks in his drive to snatch Florida in a recount, he had to turn to some old political foes who had roughed him up pretty badly in his ill-fated 1988 presidential bid - and they came through.
Just after the election, Gore reached out to John Sasso, Michael Dukakis's former presidential campaign manager, to head the recount effort in Broward County. As it turns out, Sasso, who has a reputation for relentless pursuit of his goals, came through. Broward is the only recount that gave Gore substantial (567) votes and kept the vice president in the game.
Add that to the fact that Sasso had just come back from Michigan, where he and two other old Dukakis campaign hands - Chuck Campion and Nick Mitropolous, who played key roles in seeing Gore defeated in key 1988 primaries - pulled Michigan into the vice president's column on Nov. 7.
Old speculation and weighty issues
On Capitol Hill, aides to Senate Democrats have wondered aloud if the advanced years and health of Republican Senators Strom Thurmond of South Carolina, and Jesse Helmsof North Carolina, might force them to leave office before their terms are up. The Democratic governors of those states would get to appoint new senators, thus handing the Senate, now tied at 50-50, to the Democrats to control. Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, a Republican from Mississippi, doesn't like such talk, and suggested to US News & World Report, ''There are Democrats who are getting pretty old, too, or ... others who need to watch their weight.'' The magazine concluded that Lott was referring to Democratic Senators Robert Byrd of West Virginia, who is 82, and our own Edward M. Kennedy, 68, who this year did not even make a show of going on an election year slim-down diet. Both come from states currently governed by Republicans.
Heard that rumor about Natsios?
Don't believe it - for now, anyway
Meanwhile, bombarded with speculation that he'll be joining the possible administration of possible President-elect George W. Bush, the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority chairman, Andrew Natsios, addressed that as Item No. 1 at last week's monthly Big Dig cost update meeting. ''Rumors of my demise at this project are not only premature, they are inaccurate,'' Natsios said. ''They're being spread by people who want to get rid of me - so don't believe them.'' However, asked afterward if that was a Shermanesque-like statement never to serve if called, he said: ''No.''
Souvenirs from the land of chads
Some chads are now hanging around Boston, thanks to local Democratic operatives. Julie Burns, Mayor Thomas M. Menino's assistant chief of staff, and Michael Kineavy, his director of Neighborhood Services, each brought home a few relics from the disputed election. Kineavy saved some chads from being dumped in an evidence envelope by a GOP lawyer.
O'Neil finds work as a sales agent,
walking distance from his condo
M att O'Neil, who lost his $91,000-a-year job as Boston Redevelopment Authority chief of staff last year after the Globe revealed he bought a BRA-subsidized waterfront condo, is now working close to home. He's a part-time sales agent for Navy Yard Realty, just across the pier from his Charlestown waterfront condo. It's also the agency that had lists of well-monied buyers clamoring to buy the Charlestown condos, which were intended for low-income families - but built in an unusually attractive location for subsidized housing. O'Neil said he hasn't sold any units in his own building and has no idea if any have come up for sale. He maintains he did nothing wrong, since the BRA had, for years, failed to ensure that the low-cost units remained in the hands of low-income buyers.
Parking space in a lot to think about
C arole Brennan, the mayor's press secretary, was a paying customer in the unlicensed parking lot owned by Maryann McLeod Crush, president of the controversial South Boston Betterment Trust, whom city inspectors cited this week. Brennan, who bought a condo from Crush's MCM Properties when the controversy over the Betterment Trust was still mild, got a space in the lot with her house, but had to pay $75 for it. She said she gave it up because she could never find a space, but it never occurred to her that Crush lacked the permits to run it.
Philadelphia councilors look to tap
the Hub council's spinal fortitude
It seems the Boston City Council has earned a new reputation for fortitude with its opposition to Mayor Menino's plan for a new Fenway Park. While Hub councilors have been mocked for their not-so-strong stands and last-minute cave-ins to mayoral pressure, some members of the Philadelphia City Council are now looking for ''backbone lessons'' in facing down that city's plan for a $1 billion new stadium. ''Some people here are very impressed with what's going on there in Boston,'' said a Philadelphia council source who asked not to be identified. ''We're completely rolling over for something our mayor is trying to cram down our throats. So we're looking for one of the councilors there to come tell us about having some spine.'' The 17-member Philadelphia council is holding hearings for the next several days and must approve or scuttle the plan later this month.
Menino's Paris loo is on the move
For two years they sat outside City Hall, and then one day last week they were just gone. The life-sized models of the fancy Paris-style public toilets, bus stop shelters, and newstands that Menino vowed to install around the restroom-starved city had been intended as glimpses of the world class city Boston could be. But after nearly two years of controversy and bureaucratic holdups with Menino's street furniture program, workers last week quietly loaded the models into trucks bound for Germany and a waterfront warehouse.
Officials insist the removal by manufacturer Wall USA Inc. doesn't mean the end of Menino's frustrated effort to get the furniture on the street. ''There shouldn't be too much read into this,'' said Connie Kastelnik, who represents Wall in Boston.
Frank Phillips, John Aloysius Farrell, Thomas C. Palmer Jr., Stephanie Ebbert, and Steven Wilmsen contributed to this report.
