News Leak

From today’s online Boston Globe:

Former Governor King is dead at 81

By Mark Feeney, Globe Staff

Edward J. King, whose victory over incumbent Governor Michael S. Dukakis in the 1978 state Democratic primary was one of the great upsets in Massachusetts political history and set up a storied rematch, when Mr. King lost to Dukakis four years later, died today from injuries he suffered during a fall earlier this month. He was 81.

In 1978 I was a young reporter and announcer for a small radio station in Western Massachusetts. I interviewed gubernatorial candidate King, and I couldn’t believe he was a Democrat, because every position he took was pure Republican. Having met Governor Michael Dukakis — the master of detail — several times previously, I was not impressed by King, who was short on specifics.

Before leaving, King used the station’s little half-bathroom. After he was gone, the secretary, a woman named Dana, was very upset. “Do you know what he did?” she asked in an outraged tone. “He didn’t lift the seat and he left it wet! Can you believe that?” For me that clinched it. King was no Democrat. 😉

3 thoughts on “News Leak”

  1. Whuh … ? How’d that unintended pun get in my blog title?

    You’re the only other person in the world I know who could remember that bathroom of which I spoke! King was there right before the Democratic primary, perhaps mere weeks after you left the station.

  3. Yeah, I believe it. Why? Because some people have a germ phobia that runs particularly rampant when entering public bathrooms. They don’t want to touch anything they don’t absolutely have to. So a guy with this phobia doesn’t want to touch the seat to lift it. And he doesn’t want to touch the seat to clean it off, either, due to his own “germs” from wetting it, or else because of whatever “germs” were there before he entered the bathroom.

    This is not an excuse, – it’s still revolting behavior. Also, I did not live long enough in the state of Massachusetts to even care about its local politics. I was only a resident there for about one year. So I’m not “defending” King, whom I didn’t even know.

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