Volpe's Plight

Running for vice-president, aside from being inherently ludricrous, can have its disadvantages, as Massachusetts Governor John A. Volpe should now know. Ever since the November elections Volpe has been out campaigning for the vice-presidency, and his efforts may have hurt him more than they have helped him.

In his trips throughout the East in search of publicity and delegate votes, Volpe hasn't been the least bit hesitant about suggesting why he should be the Republicans' 1968 vice-presidential candidate. He proudly points out the size of his re-election plurality, the number of Italian-American voters in the Northeast, and that his rise in the world from a hod carrier to governor is a re-affirmation of good old Republican principles. It's not because he has any notable ideas or thoughts on public issues that John Volpe feels he ought to be the next V.P., but rather that he's entitled to the office because he's John A. Volpe, Republican governor of a Democratic state.

Volpe's lack of an articulate political ideology has disturbed some Republican leaders, but even more are confused, irritated, or amused at the prospect of a man whose ambition is to be a ceremonial figure. The party leaders' eyebrows and suppressed guffaws haven't deterred Volpe, however.

A few weeks ago at the Governors' Conference, President Johnson gave Volpe, who fully supports the Administration's Vietnam policy, a chance to identify himself with the national scene. Johnson offered him a seat on the President's Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations. Volpe hastily accepted. As a result, he may no longer be Governor of Massachusetts.

Article Eight of the Massachusetts Constitution decrees that if the governor accepts a position "under the authority of the United States," his acceptance is automatically considered his resignation from the governor's office. When constitutional lawyers told Volpe what he had done, he called the whole business "quite ridiculous." Then lawyers pointed out that in 1954 the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court advised Governor Christian Herter against accepting an appointment to a similar federal commission lest he jeopardize his office. Late last week, Democratic State Committee chairman Lester S. Hyman attacked Volpe's "flippancy" about the matter. Volpe became considerably unnerved.

To resolve the question, he has decided to seek a legal opinion. The Governor can ask either the attorney general or the Supreme Judicial Court for an advisory opinion, and Volpe will probably ask attorney general Eliot L. Richarson is a Republican and could easily find adequate grounds for ruling that Volpe hasn't resigned -- especially since Volpe hasn't taken an oath for his federal position.

The Supreme Judicial Court is, of course, apolitical. But the Herter opinion, which if followed could end Volpe's tenure, is quite strong and quite recent. The Court might be swayed by the fact that the Governor hasn't taken the federal oath, but some of Volpe's advisors feel his case is too tenuous to go before the court.

One Volpe aide feels that the Governor's plan to appoint as Chief Justice of Massachusetts a judge who is not now on the Supreme Judicial Court (the Chief Justice is traditionally appointed from within the SJC) would not hurt his case but won't help it.

Volpe's anxiety caused him to make one other incredible blunder. Last week John J. Buckley, deputy chairman of the Republican State Committee, granted a Worcester newspaper an interview in which he outlined Republican plans for increasing their numbers in the state legislature. Aside from suggesting that more candidates would be run and more money would be spent, Buckley predicted that Volpe would appoint some Democratic legislators to important, attractive administration posts to get them out of the legislature. Buckley could have been more discreet, but what he said was not particularly shocking. Democrats and Republicans have been using patronage for years to thin enemy ranks.

In any case Senate President Maurice A. Donahue (D-Holyoke) issued the usual attacks against Volpe and Buckley, they were promptly ignored by everyone but Volpe. The Governor over-reacted and got Buckley to resign. Massachusetts Democrats, who have long feared Buckley's political prowess, are delighted. The resignation was something they never expected.

It's been a rough two weeks for the Governor. Or is it ex-Governor?