John Volpe Speaks for Himself?

SOMEWHERE IN THE CORRIDORS OF POWER, Aug. 5--Undaunted by the fact that he has long been conceded to be out of the running, governor John A. Volpe today continued his relentless campaign for the vice-presidency.

"The hubris of the man," said one long-time observer of Massachusetts politics, "is positively astounding. The man won't stop and he just doesn't have a snowball's chance in hell."

Yesterday Volpe submitted a 17-page "study" to Richard Nixon which supposedly would reveal the type of man that the Republicans should nominate for vice-president. Conducted by James F. and Constance S. Collins, two statistical analysts, the study concluded that if the Republicans are to win in 1968 it is essential to have an Italian-Catholic on the ticket.

"Fortunately, there is an Italian-Catholic who because of his position, his character, his location, has been named on many lists of potential Republican vice-presidential candidates," the report states.

"That man is Gov. John A. Volpe of Massachusetts, and he should be the Republican candidate for vice-president," it says.

The Collins Report, though supposedly a private study motivated purely by a desire to discover what sort of a man would add the most strength to a Nixon ticket, reached the some conclusions that Volpe has been trumpeting for some months now. Volpe's earlier attempts to convince Nixon of his own vote-getting value have been futile and it expected that the Collins study, despite its scientific appearance and statistical documentations, will fail also to impress Nixon and his king-makers.

"I think he has made himself look absurd," said the observer quoted earlier,

"Apparently Volpe has convinced himself that he'd be a worth while candidate because he's an Italian-American," he said.

"The Governor is just not sophisticated enough to realize that (1) he's not savvy enough to be vice-president, (2) that the importance of ethnic factors has declined, and (3) that he's been rejected by the Nixon people and should bow out now instead of continuing to make a fool of himself," he added.