A Familiar Name

Among all the pageantry and hoopla over the Inauguration, one familiar Long Island name that hasn't been in the news for a while kept popping up.

Remember wonder boy Thomas J. Downey, who was elected to the Suffolk Legislature at 22 and became a U.S. Representative, the youngest in Congress, six years later? The apple-cheeked youth from Amityville, who is in his mid-40s now, lost his Second District seat to Rep. Rick Lazio, a Republican, a few years ago in the aftermath of the House scandal involving overdrafts on the Congressional bank, but he is clearly still to be reckoned with as a player on the national political field.

Mr. Downey, it seems, has become a Washington insider, an "eternal Democratic enthusiast," according to The New York Times, who is counted among the members of Vice President Gore's "inner circle." Somewhere along the way, he also appears to have picked up the art of speaking in neat sound bites, a talent that will surely stand him in good stead with his party as the millennial election approaches.

"Inaugural parties are like love-ins, without the love," Mr. Downey told The Times, meaning that for thousands of Capitol Hill bureaucrats, office seekers, and networking lobbyists like himself, the weekend's galas, culminating in Monday night's 14 inaugural balls, were more work than play.

Asked by another reporter to say a few words about the Vice President, the front runner for the Democratic nomination in 2000, Mr. Downey was concise. "The salad days are over," he snapped.

Does ex-Congressman Downey sound like he's auditioning for a larger role on the Washington stage - one close, perhaps, to the star of the show? Don't forget, you read it here first.