Alfonse D'Amato causes stir in keynote address

Former U.S. Sen. Alfonse D'Amato was, well, vintage former U.S. Sen. Alfonse D'Amato, Friday when he delivered an expletive-laced keynote address to lunchgoers at the Vision Long Island summit in Melville. Along the way to making the point that if Long Island is to succeed, it must fight high taxes and high pensions, D'Amato managed to, among other things: Refer to a neighbor using the b-word; call Richard Kessel a son of a female dog, referring to their days as adversaries when the NYPA chairman was an aggressive civic leader and D'Amato was Hempstead town supervisor; and label the property taxes on his home as, er, bull excrement.

Some teachers left the room when he made remarks about teachers and school districts. And John Durso, head of the Long Island Federation of Labor, broke the bottom of a door that he kicked as he stormed out after D'Amato talked about unions, noting that incoming Gov. Andrew Cuomo was going to have "a hell of a time" with both.

After the speech, I asked D'Amato whether he had seen the looks of some women in the audience when he used the b-word. He said he had not personalized it. I asked whether he saw the looks of a group of high school students and their teachers when he used salty language. He said it was nothing high school kids didn't hear or say themselves.

Outside the ballroom, a group of summit-goers complained to Eric Alexander, Vision Long Island's executive director, about D'Amato's remarks. More than one called them offensive and inappropriate. But downstairs, in the exhibit area, the reviews were mixed. Some said they were offended; others said they were entertained; still others shrugged the whole thing off as vintage D'Amato. At the end of the speech, he got a mostly standing ovation.

(Joye Brown, a Newsday columnist, was the moderator for two morning panels during the Vision Long Island Smart Growth Summit and was on the dais when D'Amato gave the keynote luncheon speech.)