The Rising Star from Queens

"If I weren 't capable, I wouldn 't be talked about"

The traffic was maddening on the Long Island side of New York City's Queensboro Bridge, with motorists darting heedlessly into a crowded intersection. The ensuing gridlock trapped a long gray sedan with VIP license plates. A frosted blond head poked out of the backseat window. "You are a stupid man!" she shouted at a driver who had cut her off. "You are a stupid man!" Then she got out of the car and rushed into the middle of the snarled intersection. Ignoring honks, raised fists and remarks far ruder than her own, she demanded that this car back up, that one turn right. One driver recognized her and yelled, "You tell 'em, Gerri!" Slowly the traffic jam cleared. The Congresswoman from Queens was back on schedule, racing to a Knights of Columbus testimonial dinner.

Any New Yorker loathes traffic, and Geraldine Ferraro, 48, is no exception. But the bold aplomb needed to take charge is all her own. Aplomb took her from teaching school to learning law, from an assistant prosecutor's job to a prominent position in Congress. It could, if the timing and political climate were precisely right, put her on the Democratic ticket in July. No less a figure than House Speaker Tip O'Neill is touting her vice-presidential chances. "Sure, I have a candidate," he told reporters. "Her name is Geraldine Ferraro."

Ferraro has been on a very fast track ever since she went to Washington in 1979 as a new Congresswoman from Archie Bunker's district. Eager to work her way up from lowly assignments like the Post Office and Civil Service Committee, Ferraro uncomplainingly attended 8 a.m. meetings, took on tedious tasks and carefully cultivated the Democratic leadership. O'Neill became her champion. With his blessing she was elected secretary of the Democratic caucus, a job traditionally reserved for a woman. In her third term, O'Neill put her on the powerful House Budget Committee, bypassing more senior members.

In 1981 Ferraro was appointed to the Hunt commission, created to overhaul the party's presidential nominating procedures. It was Ferraro who drafted the compromise that set aside 14% of the seats at the convention for party and elected officials. Shrewdly refraining from endorsing any of the Democratic presidential candidates, Ferraro asked for and got an election-year plum: chairmanship of the highly visible Democratic platform committee.

If she got help from O'Neill in all these promotions, Ferraro brought talent to the tasks and early won the respect of House colleagues. She showed herself to be an organization Democrat who, despite her evident ambition, played by the rules. She loyally supported Jimmy Carter after he sent his mother Lillian to Queens to stump on Ferraro's behalf. "When someone does something for me," Ferraro says, "I don't forget." Congressman Leon Panetta, a California Democrat, vouches for her political savvy. "She doesn't shoot from the hip," he says. "She's sensitive to issues and their various ramifications."