Nor will Democratic politics be a foreign realm to him. Mobil Chairman Warner claims that Schmertz's strength is his "ability to talk to the Democratic side of the House and Senate and to know some of those people that we would never, never see before – the liberal element of the Democratic side."
Schmertz's entrée with the liberals dates to his work on voter registration in Jack Kennedy's 1960 campaign. In 1966, Harvard Business School professor James Healy recommended Schmertz, a labor lawyer, to Mobil as its manager for labor relations, the job from which he took a leave of absence to work as ad advance man in Bobby Kennedy's 1968 campaign. Now he will have the chance to shape the Kennedy image for Ted. If his performance at Mobil has been any measure, Schmertz's chances of succeeding are high; for the Mobil campaign, geared down for weekly pulp like Parade and Family Week and dressed up for the Times, has aimed at precisely the audiences Ted Kennedy must win: disaffected blue-collar Democrats and middle-class technocrats. And for a man capable of saying that corporate advertisement "should convince the consumer that in the final analysis, his greatest protection comes from free choice in the marketplace, and that corporations are in business to give him that choice" – why, a man who can say that should find it a cinch to advertise Kennedy's negative points out of existence.
Nevertheless, it is a role that befuddles Schmertz's comrades inside the oil industry. "We are stunned," said a spokesman for another major oil company. "Whenever Mobil was attacked, Schmertz wrote knee-jerk ads that sounded a little to the right of Attila. Now he is joining a candidate who is a little to the left of center . . . . It seems to me that either you believe in what you're doing, or you don't."
So, goodbye ideology; hello managerial technocracy. Or, as Professor Whitehead puts it: "The Irish Mafia is dead and gone. What Ted Kennedy represents is the New Class Mafia; and Herb Schmertz is a member of the New Class."
Related:
The annunciations, Public and private affairs, Ted's turn, More 
- The annunciations
The broad brush strokes of Teddy Kennedy's presidential announcement may have uplifted liberal hearts, but Jerry Brown's announcement challenged liberal thinking with some pencil-sharp specifics about the role of government in economic planning for the 1980s.
- Public and private affairs
Philandering, like heavy drinking, traditionally has been one of those activities that the boys in the press keep mum about when reporting on the boys on the Hill, or the boy in the White House, or any boy, for that matter. The rationales for this silence are curiously contradictory.
- Ted's turn
A little-known provision in the crime bill now being negotiated by a House-Senate conference committee would greatly expand the number of prison cells available to house violent criminals, and it wouldn't be cost a dime. But it may be doomed unless Senator Ted Kennedy is willing to spend some political capital.
- Tormenting Teddy
After 32 years in the US Senate, Ted Kennedy remains a force to be reckoned with, both for his legendary family history and his considerable accomplishments.
- Shooting from the lip
Washington – Edward M. Kennedy's presidential campaign has a serious problem, and the problem appears to be Edward M. Kennedy. During the week in which leadership was transformed from a word in the lexicon of his campaign rhetoric to a measurable reality, Kennedy succeeded in verbally vanishing himself to a political isolation.
- Ted Kennedy's real record
When a 32-year incumbent seeks re-election, there is a long and well-documented record that can be examined. So it's disconcerting to note that admit all the miles of newsprint and videotape that have been expended covering the US Senate campaign, little has been said of what Ted Kennedy has or hasn't accomplished.
- Gay Activists Work for Ted
Gay-and-lesbian community activists are heavily involved in what the chairman of the Lesbian/Gay Political Alliance of Massachusetts, Todd Fernandez, calls "a full-court press to ensure that Ted Kennedy's re-elected."
- Jimmy C. and Teddy K.
When the Camelot Caucus convenes in Faneuil Hall this Wednesday, the American presidency will once again become the trophy of a personality joust. In 1968 and '72, there was at least the issue of Vietnam to veil the overweaning ambitions of competing public men. But even that ambiguous nobility is lacking this year.
- After Ted
The death of Senator Edward M. Kennedy early Wednesday morning brings to a close the life and legendary career of one of Massachusetts's greatest political figures.
- Ted Kennedy's passing
Senator Edward M. Kennedy, who served Massachusetts for 46 years — sometimes surrounded by controversy, but always with distinction — was the only one of Joseph P. Kennedy’s four sons to die surrounded by family at home in his bed.
- Choosing Kennedy’s successor
Massachusetts should have a temporary US senator until voters elect a replacement to serve out the remaining three years of Ted Kennedy’s term.
- Less
Topics:
Flashbacks
, Edward M. Kennedy, Harvard Business School, Lyndon Johnson, More
, Edward M. Kennedy, Harvard Business School, Lyndon Johnson, U.S. Democratic Party, Ralph Whitehead, Richard Goodwin, Richard Goodwin, University of California-Los Angeles, presidential campaign, Bob Kerr, Less
