Second acts

Keep on running

by Seth Gitell

The talk in the Big Apple is all about whether President Bill Clinton will run for mayor of New York City. Out of the question? Not if you look at his wife's career -- or, closer to home, that of Boston mayor James Michael Curley, who famously remarked, "Nobody is through with politics who has ever tasted it."

Curley, like Clinton, was the consummate politician. Also like Clinton, he was term-limited out of the office he wanted to stay in: mayor of Boston, a post he held for four terms (1914-'18, 1922-'26, 1930-'34, and 1944-'49). So, as chronicled in Jack Beatty's The Rascal King: The Life and Times of James Michael Curley (Addison-Wesley, 1992), he simply sought other political opportunities. He served a term as governor (1935-'37), as well as two stints in the House (1911-'14 and 1943-'46). Of Curley's 1942 decision to run for Congress, Beatty writes, "Nineteen forty two: what offices were up for election then?" Curley had lost the 1941 Boston mayoral race.

"Politics was his life, but it was also his livelihood," says Beatty. "He was running for survival."

That's probably what Clinton will be doing -- if he runs. Political narcissism is another trait Clinton shares with Curley. For instance, Beatty says, Curley did much to keep Boston's economy depressed because it helped him politically and financially. During Curley's term as mayor, the city levied heavy property taxes on businesses -- even though Curley didn't expect all the big businesses in town to pay. Rather, the exorbitant taxes allowed Curley and his cronies to set up a complicated system whereby property owners hired politically connected lawyers ("Friends of Curley") to negotiate valuable tax abatements. "This discouraged the building of new businesses," says Beatty. "There was even some talk of businesses cutting floors of building, but it helped Curley."

Of course, Curley also had his share of legal troubles. He served five months in prison on a mail-fraud charge -- as mayor -- before being pardoned by President Harry Truman.

To be sure, some presidents have enjoyed political careers after leaving the White House -- including Braintree's own John Quincy Adams, who went on to serve in the US House of Representatives from 1831 to 1848. But Adams was motivated more by principle than by self-preservation. Clinton seems to have more in common with the Rascal King than with the reserved gentleman from Massachusetts.