Mario Cuomo

Trenton, New Jersey. -- Gov. James Florio and I were on our way to lunch last Thursday when his car phone rang. ''Great,'' he said. ''That's good. That's good. Set up a news conference for after lunch.''''We won on McGuire,'' he said, turning to me as he hung up. The Defense Base Closure and Realignment Commission had voted to keep McGuire Air Force Base in southern New Jersey open and also to assign the Air Force's new Northeast Air Mobility Wing at the New Jersey base rather than at Plattsburgh Air Force Base in the North Country of New York state.

THOUGH there are 1,035 days till the New Hampshire primary, the Inside-the-Beltway crowd has already started "covering" the 1996 presidential campaign. As I Noted here Monday, 20 Republicans have already been mentioned as probable candidates.You think that's silly? Some political journalists are already speculating about Democratic presidential candidates in 1996. For example, the Cleveland Plain Dealer carried this bit of punditry last month:"Here are the morning odds for 1996: Clinton (2 to 1)

WASHINGTON -- Mario Cuomo has taken President Clinton off the hook politically with his public declaration that he isn't interested in the Supreme Court seat being vacated this summer by the retirement of Justice Byron White.Whether Clinton was serious about naming Cuomo -- that's something we'll never know -- his decision last year to mention the New York governor as the kind of justice he would choose had given rise to great expectations in the liberal community. The focus on Cuomo had become so intense that a decision by Clinton to nominate anyone else would have been seen as a humiliating rejection.

Maryland Republicans took a pasting in the presidential election last week, but not all of them lost their sense of humor.Herewith, in the style of David Letterman, party loyalists offer eight reasons why the GOP can take comfort in the Clinton victory:* We can stop defending Dan Quayle.* Maryland Democrats won't be able to blame their budget problems on the Reagan-Bush administration anymore.* Mario Cuomo's Supreme Court confirmation hearing will be even more entertaining than Clarence Thomas'.

NEW YORK -- So it's about as subdued as a subway ride. So the grounds look like a tent city for corporate America. So the ticket policy ensures that only the rich, the famous, the well-connected and the scalped get to sit within 100 yards of the action.So what?Forget everything you've ever heard about how gorgeous Wimbledon is, or how utterly civilized the French Open can be, or how the Australians know how to put on a tennis show every January.They're terrific places to visit. But if you want to find out who the best tennis players are, you come to New York around Labor Day and witness the U.S. Open.

IT IS already an overworn cliche that the voters are angry, alienated and demanding "change" in 1992. But what are they angry about specifically?The people who voted for Pat Buchanan or "uncommitted" in the Republican primaries last winter were probably angry at George Bush. But whether they embraced Buchanan's "America First" platform is doubtful.The people who voted for Paul Tsongas in the Democratic primaries were arguably angry at traditional liberal Democrats. But their anger at seemingly perpetual Democratic losses of the White House bore little resemblance to Republican anger at George Bush.

GEORGE Orwell was convinced that corrupt language -- inflated imagery, stale metaphors, meaningless words -- corrupted thought.As I watched the Democratic convention, his ghost reminded me that "euphemism, question-begging and a sheer cloudy vagueness" in political language was not unique to Britain in the 1930s.Am I the only left-leaning progressive who feels asphyxiated every time Bill Clinton makes a speech?Forget Al Gore, who has so mastered Non-Speak that a pharmaceutical company should buy the rights to him as a non-addictive alternative to Seconal.

NEW YORK -- Along with thousands of others, I was locked out of the Omni four years ago when Jesse Jackson spoke.Atlanta public safety officials said the throng trying to get in was too large.So this year I took no chances. I went into Madison Garden early Tuesday night.Jackson didn't disappoint. Even in what has been called his summer of discontent, he is still the best public speaker I'm aware of.That's not saying much in the era of sound bites.There are only a few real rabble rousers left.

The interesting thing about John Donaldson, 21, of Hunt Valley, is not that Mario Cuomo has called him twice in the last few weeks to chat.Mario Cuomo likes to chat. If you have a listed number, he might call you to chat.No, the interesting thing about Donaldson is that when he was a high school student in Baltimore and went down to Annapolis as a legislative page, he met all the political leaders of this state and still decided that politics was a worthwhile human endeavor.Now that's what I call interesting.

Portland, Me. -- PART OF the price Paul Tsongas pays for being the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination, however temporarily, is the no-win situation he is facing in the Maine party caucuses Sunday.If Mr. Tsongas wins, his success will be written off as another expression of regional pride. If he loses, the result will be seen as a negative verdict on his electability.Precedent points strongly toward a Tsongas victory here. Since 1976 the winner of the New Hampshire primary has captured these caucuses as well.