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4.4.2001 00:10
In D.C., fellow
leaders react with respect, hope, amusement
 Mayor Vincent A. Cianci
Jr., in Washington for a national mayors' meeting, says: "I'm like David here
fighting Goliath. The federal government has got unlimited resources."
BY JOHN E. MULLIGAN
Journal Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON — Tom Korologos knew Buddy Cianci when
the new, reform-style mayor of Providence was a regular and zealous supplicant
for federal dollars from the Ford White House, more than 25 years ago.
"He was a real prospect. He was tagged early on as a future leader of the party
— a young, up-and-coming, Republican, ethnic mayor," Korologos, a top GOP lobbyist
on Capitol Hill, recalled yesterday.
Korologos also knows the Providence so completely remade under Cianci that, to
most Americans, it's known mainly as the gorgeous backdrop for the Providence
of Friday night TV. His daughter, actress Paula Cale, who plays Joanie Hansen
on the series, and her friends from the show "think the world of Cianci and the
city," Korologos said.
But the onetime White House political operative is also acquainted with the other
side of Cianci's reputation. When told of the mayor's indictment during an interview
near the Senate chamber, Korologos stopped short on the polished tile floor and
exclaimed with a laugh.
"Again! This is the third time, isn't it? Amazing."
That may sum up the view of Vincent A. Cianci Jr. to the world outside Providence:
Imprecise (Cianci has been charged with only one previous felony) but emphatic.
He may not always be known by name. But for the mayor of a city of only 173,000,
Cianci has a big reputation outside Providence — for good and for ill.
And, true to his reputation for never passing up an opportunity to make a stir,
Cianci stuck with his longstanding plan for this week: To join his fellow municipal
chiefs today at the annual gathering of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, moderate
a seminar at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel (topic: "The American City — Competitive Assets
and Investment Opportunities") and meet with President Bush tomorrow at the White
House.
"These things pass," Cianci said of the charges against him last night. "When
you've been around as long as I have, you take them seriously. You're concerned,"
he said over a drink at the wood-paneled Ritz bar.
"I'm like David here fighting Goliath. The federal government has got unlimited
resources. They've got unlimited money. They've got all the time in the world
and all of the power they can possibly muster available to them," Cianci said.
"So now's not the time to go to sleep. You try and do an even better job than
you did before," he said, stressing that that includes keeping his date with his
fellow mayors and with the president.
When Mr. Bush's chief of staff, Andrew H. Card, was asked for a reaction to the
indictment of the Providence mayor, he interrupted the question to declare brightly,
"Buddy!"
Card, who has known Cianci since Card was a young Massachusetts state legislator
in the 1970s, said, "His career has been a roller coaster at other times and I
guess this is one of those roller coaster moments."
Asked whether Cianci is still welcome at the White House, Card said he had no
official word but stressed that "the president is looking forward to meeting the
mayors" and deferred to their organization to make the list of invitees.
J. Thomas Cochran, the long-time executive director of the mayors' group, gave
Cianci an emphatic vote of confidence and said that, as far as he's concerned,
the mayor is joining his colleagues at the White House tomorrow.
"When all this is over, Mayor Cianci is going to come out on top in his city up
there. I've traveled with him, I know his philosophy, I think he's honest, and
I know he's had a lot to do with what's happening up there — the Providence renaissance,"
Cochran said.
Cochran said other mayors have long appreciated Cianci's example as an aggressive
pursuer of federal grants and an urban booster who can show results for his efforts
to draw business to his city — the retail outlets of the new mall in Providence,
for example — with tax breaks and other enticements.
"He goes back to the Ford days, and he's been at it all through to the second
Bush administration, as a player who knows a mayor's role in the scheme of things,"
Cochran said.
U.S. Rep. Patrick J. Kennedy, who has traveled the country exhaustively to raise
money for Democratic campaigns, said people are forever buttonholing him to pass
on Buddy stories — "how he practically took over some conference, what a character
he is."
Kennedy said, "The charges that have been leveled against the mayor are serious
— serious for Mr. Cianci and sad for the city."
But "there's little doubt that Providence really is on the map as a city that's
transformed itself and thrived under his leadership," he said. At the same time,
Providence has contributed, Kennedy said, to "the scar on the state's overall
reputation" for political shennanigans and corruption.
Korologos, who worked in the Nixon and Ford White Houses en route to becoming
one of Washington's most prominent lobbyists, recalled how Cianci's qualities
— urban, ethnic and Republican were, then as now, rare enough in the GOP
that the party elders wanted to showcase them.
So they did in 1976 — handing Cianci a prime speaking role at the national convention
in Kansas City that nominated President Gerald R. Ford and later wooing him as
a Senate prospect.
"Remember what conventions are about: The parties search for young leaders, the
people who are going to be the leaders of the future, and they show them off at
the convention," said Korologos. To put the young Cianci in context, he added,
"Think of Ronald Reagan. Think of Bill Clinton."
And now this latest news of the onetime Republican wonder boy.
"Amazing," Korologos said, chuckling, and strode away from the Senate floor.
Cianci found nothing amazing in this week's news. "In a way, it's almost a relief,"
he said. "You know, I looked at that indictment and there's nothing new in there."
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