The next pushy stadium vendor (hello, Bob Kraft) or Beacon-Hill-is-my-birthright pol (g'day, Mr. Bulger) who thinks state Senator Stephen F. Lynch is a pushover might want to look back 20 years and up about 30 stories -- to the day Lynch, a wiry young ironworker from South Boston, reported for duty on a New Mexico job site.

Lynch was working "high iron," on a crew trying to remove a steel beam wedged between two towers of a power plant. A crane was wheeled in and a chain attached to the beam, Lynch recalls. Then a worker named Walker hooked a smaller chain to one end of the beam and started to crank it free by hand.

An aide sticks his head in the door and reminds Lynch that his 3 o'clock appointment is waiting. Lynch looks up, nods silently. He picks up a couple of pens.