Three of the Boston Originals
(from left): Kenneth O'DonneU, Dave
Powers, and Lawrence O'Brien.
JFK's Irish "Cabinet"
St. Patrick's Day finds Irishmen galore
on President Kennedy's staff, but they're there
because of talent not Old Sod sentiment
IIFE has its low spots, even for a
J clever young Irishman with a nota
ble gift of gab and Dave Powers was
going through such a low.
He had just gotten out of the Air Force, he
had no job, and he was living in a third-floor
walk-up apartment in Boston with his sister
and her 10 kids.
So, when a knock came at the door, he wel
comed it as a chance for some diverting banter,
but the young man standing outside had more
serious things on his mind. He extended his hand
and said: "I'm Jack Kennedy. I'm running for
Congress, and I'd like your help."
Although Powers did not know it at the time,
he had just opened the door to a new career
and a friendship that has lasted 17 years.
Kennedy was looking for potential political
talent, and Powers was noted for having a way
with people. Everybody in the tight-knit Irish
community knew him as the likable young man
who ushered for Ave Masses every Sunday at
St. Catherine's and played a razzle-dazzle second
base on the church's ball team.
Kennedy was sold on Powers. Soon Powers
was sold on Kennedy and he pitched in furious
ly to help his new friend. At Dave's insistence,
every veteran in the district registered to vote.
And in his spare time he escorted Kennedy on
tours of housewives' kitchens ("that's where
the votes are, not in the parlors"). Running
against young Jack were nine candidates, in
cluding two fellows named Joe Russo and an ex
WAC who campaigned in full uniform. But with
Dave's help, Kennedy won-.
At 49, Dave is still working for John F. Ken
nedy, although he now calls him Mr. President
As White House receptionist, he is noted for his
breezy "Hi, pal" greeting (during a state visit
to France, he varied it to "Comment allez vous,
pal?"). But Dave's most important function is
By ARDEN EIDELL
serving as the man with whom the President
can relax. He and Mr. Kennedy swim together
at least once a day; on many evenings they watch
tv together; and on Sundays they often attend
church together.
Powers' camaraderie with the President is
shared by few other men, and most of them are
in a little circle of long-time confidants that
Washington calls the Boston Originals, Kennedy's
Irish Cabinet, or the Irish Mafia.
But the closeness of these men to Mr. Ken
nedy has nothing to do with their being Irish.
Although the President is proud of his forebears,
he is notably unsentimental about nationality ties.
Irish Boston is a place he left at 9 and where 122
. Bowdoin Street is strictly his voting address. For
him, the charm of the White House does not de
pend on the fact that it was designed by an Irish
man with a Dublin mansion as a model.
Mr. Kennedy's Irish Cabinet took shape be
cause the base of bis political power until 1960
was one state, Massachusetts and in the Bay
State when you recruit Democrats to work for
you, they are likely to be Irish.
One op the first and brightest recruits was
Kenneth P. O'DonneU, a friend of Robert Ken
nedy from Harvard days. He is the kind of man
the Kennedys like: intelligent, discreet, tough.
A bombardier-navigator during World War II,
he had completed 13 combat missions by the time
he was 21 and was awarded the Distinguished
Flying Cross. After the war, he won grid glory
for playing in the Harvard-Yale game of 1948
with a broken leg.
During the 1960 campaign, O'DonneU was the
man who engineered Kennedy's tight, fast sched
ule, and after the inauguration he became
Presidential appointments secretary. His job is
to ride herd on the stampede of people and paper
work headed for the President, and he does it
with such steely firmness and sphinxlike silence
that he has been nicknamed The Arab.
O'DonneU sees Mr. Kennedy up to two dozen
times a day more han any other man in Wash
ington. He gets to the office long before the
President arrives at 9 a.m. and stays until 10:30
or 11 p.m., or whenever the President leaves.
Another around-the-clock worker for Mr. Ken
nedy is Lawrence F. O'Brien. The chunky
45-year-old. former public-relations man handles
patronage and Congressional relations for the
President through endless telephone calls and
a card file that lists the legislators' soft spots.
O'Brien's devotion to politics is total, as his
wife Elva attests : "During our courtship, Larry's
idea of a date was to go to a political rally."
Iarey has told reporters: "I don't know why
J I'm in this crowd. I didn't go to Harvard; I
don't even play touch football." But if Larry
doesn't know, JFK does. He characterizes O'Brien
as "the best election man in the business."
Powers, O'DonneU, and O'Brien are the most
, talked-about members of the Irish Cabinet But
other Presidential assistants who hold important
portfolios in it include Richard K. Donahue, 35,
a brilliant lawyer who is an expert in dealing
with big-city politics; Timothy Reardon, 46, a
Harvard roommate of the President's late brother
Joe, Jr., who has worked for Jack ever since he
became "the Kennedys' Presidential candidate";
and Ralph Dungan, 39, a Princeton-educated
political scientist who has been called the Irish
Cabinet's only intellectual.
It is true that the Boston Originals are basical
ly the action men of the Administration. The idea
men are another group, sometimes called the
Harvard Clique. But the quality that really sets
the Irish apart is their personal loyalty to Mr.
Kennedy. The eggheads could just as well have
been Stevenson men or even Rockefeller men. But
the Irish they are Kennedy men to the core.
Kenneth O'DonneU was speaking for all of the
Boston Originals when he said: "The President
and I are not friends . . . It's deeper than that"
COVER:
Honey-haired, blue-eyed Julie Lochridge,
going on three, is caught in a wistful mood
by photographer Phoebe Dunn. Diagno
sis: a mild, early ease of spring fever.
Family
I
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