Every clod has a Silber lining.

Every Clod Has a Silber Lining

THE MASSACHUSETTS gubernatorial story this year is a tale of two who weren't there--Mayor Raymond L. Flynn, who played reluctant debutante all last year before finally doing a Collidge and choosing not to run; and Congressman Joseph Kennedy, ditto, who has clearly chosen to wait 'til his uncle relinquishes that God-given family Senate seat some time in the twenty-first century--and Dr. John Silber, president of Boston University, the guy who by common wisdom shouldn't be in the race at all.

But . . . but he is in the race, discombobulating the Democratic Establishment, which expected another insider run for and grasp of the brass ring--the GOP hasn't held the governorship since 1974--and irritating the Republicans, from whose candidates many GOP rank-and-filers are evidently scurrying, the better to vote for the on-leave BU president. Although many Democratic liberals abandoned their party's choice, conservative Edward J. King, for the GOP's wan, diffident, liberal (but not too liberal) state Representative Francis Hatch in 1978, some of these same people are now grousing that Silber isn't really a Democrat, owing to his unforgivable presidential votes for Ronald Reagan and George Bush. Moreover, Texas-style Democrats like John Silber (who when integrationist dean at the University of Texas was by local standards thought to be a wild-eyed liberal) aren't much loved in the People's Republic of Massachusetts, at least not by the legatees of George McGovern, Walter Mondale, Ted Kennedy, and Mike Dukakis. Only The People appear to like Silber. Alas, The People sometimes vote--but only for candidates permitted to run by the party bosses. In 1982, to avoid a threeman run for the Democratic nomination, Dukakis's machine engineered the rule whereby only those who took 15 per cent of the party convention votes could appearl on the September ballot. The GOP has of late borrowed this lamentable practice, reducing this year's field to two:

William Weld, a lanky, wealthy charmer with High WASP credentials, former U.S. Attorney and former honcho in the Meese Justice Department, though he resigned lest his escutcheon be blotted by association with the beseiged Meese. Mr. Weld presents himself as a liberal Republican "tough guy" (Thomas Dewely leaps to mind). He opposes new taxes, favors the death penalty, favors Roe-like abortion rights, stresses his reputation as a foe of corruption, but trails badly in the polls as the Massachusetts GOP has shied away from the "me-too" Republicanism that had its heyday with Governor Francis Sargeant and Senator Edward Brooke, and hasn't won a race since 1972. Weld was swamped at the GOP convention by the less-well-known:

Steven Pierce, minority leader in the State House of Representatives, who looks like a nerd but isn't. New Hampshire-like in his anti-new-tax stance and as tough as Weld on crime, Pierce stands to Weld's right on the social issues. He's anti-abortion, though maddeningly imprecise about what, if anything, he might do as governor to stop it. Unlike Mr. Weld, Representative Pierce is opposed to the new state policy permitting foster parenting by homosexuals and against the new "gay rights" law as well. Facing him across the political spectrum is:

Evelyn Murphy, twice a cabinet officer in the Dukedom though not the Duke's choice as his running-mate or a power as lieutenant governor. Dr. Murphy--she has publicly complained that Silber's doctorate attaches routinely to him while her's does not--is the Democratic liberals' great hope: she's pro-new-taxes, pro-abortion, even unto the last second before birth, pro-everything in the liberal social agenda, and the victim of Dukakis's utter failure through his final four years. The Liuetenant Governor emerged at the June convention as one of three Democrats getting above the requisite 15 per cent, thus pitting her against:

Fracis Belloti, lieutenant governor eons ago, often a candidate for governor, and for 12 years a successful attorney general. This George Hamilton of Bay State politics, whose tan is eternal and whose vigor belies his 67 years, holds carefully construed moderate views on everything, accepts a just-shy of Murphyesque position on abortion though formerly pro-life, has a Midas-like wer chest, is the consummate insider, and should be odds-on favorite to win the nod in September, save for the irritating (to him) presence of:

John Silber, who regards the party stalwarts as irrelevant hacks. He squeaked by the 15 per cent rule (15.5) at a convention disrupted by a short and illegal police strike. (Massachusetts Democrats would no sooner cross a union picket line than Dracula would stock up on garlic at the A & P.) Silber has analogized the 15 per cent rule to white racist policies in the Southern Democratic primaries of yore, called the Bay State a "welfare magnate," proposes (a la Charles Murray) a cut-off of welfare funds for second-time illegitimate mothers, opposes abortion personally but pledges not to do anything about it through law, and offers, in keeping with his recent book Straight Shooting, a grab-bag of intriguing (and to Democratic liberals infuriating) ideas for revitalizing this now near-moribund state. Ronnie Dugger, the editor of the Texas Observer, writes, "there is something in [Silber] that's noble: the doctrine of personal excellence." But Massachusetts is different: Margery Eagan, the always quotable, poisonously readable Herald columnist, wrote on March 3, "If you don't like blaks or Asians or Jews or women or special education or homosexuals or welfare, John Silber is covering all the bases. He may be the man for you."

But the stat that went for Reagan twice and avoided going for Bush only because of the presence of the Home-boy, Michael Dukakis, at the top of the ticket has been showing unexpected signs of a move rightward throughout the past decade. At the moment, the two most liberal candidates, Weld and Murphy, scramble to stay alive; the senior pol, Bellotti, must counter the Silber surge; and the GOP conservative, Pierce, and the Democratic maverick, Silber, seem headed to the nomination. But Massachusetts lives by unique rules; if only Harold Stassen were available.

Mr. Brudnoy hosts WBZ Radio's late evening talk program and is film critic of the TAB chain of newspapers in Massachusetts.