He looks set to become Washington's best-known intern since a certain young woman in a blue dress.
Euan Blair, the dashing 21-year-old son of British Prime Minister Tony, will be reporting for photocopying and envelope-stuffing duty at the start of next year, when he begins a six-month stint working for two House members on Capitol Hill.
The recent graduate, who was 13 when his father entered Downing Street, gained notoriety in Britain when he was found drunk and semi-conscious by police in London's Leicester Square as a teenager. But he has since mended his ways, and he spent the past three years at Bristol University, securing a degree in ancient history. He also campaigned on behalf of his father in Britain's recent general election.
Now he is preparing to come to Washington -- perhaps the strongest indication yet that Blair Jr. might be keen to follow his father's footsteps into the political arena.
Mirroring his father's instincts to reach across the political divide, Blair Jr. has shown he is unwilling to nail his political colors to a party mast.
Choose an internship working for a Republican and he risks offending members of the British Labor Party, with its long-standing ties to the Democrats. Choose a Democrat and he might irritate his father's friends in the White House.
So, in an unusual move, the young Blair will work for representatives of both parties, both of them representing California. He will spend his first three months with Republican David Dreier on the House Rules Committee before crossing the aisle and working for three months in the office of a Democrat, Jane Harman.
How does a 21-year-old foreigner secure not one but two coveted placements with prominent lawmakers?
"He applied through the normal route," Jo Maney, press secretary for Dreier, said in a telephone interview, but she declined to give further details. According to a report in Britain's Sunday Telegraph, Blair was accepted after being interviewed by telephone. A spokesman for Harman confirmed Blair's internship but would not discuss the matter further.
The British Embassy denied helping Blair secure the slots, but would not say whether it played a role in picking which congressmen Blair approached. The embassy confirmed that it had been in touch with the offices of both Dreier and Harman to discuss the "security and media implications."
The normally sharp-tongued Sidney Blumenthal, who has worked with members of the Labor Party in the past, demurred from criticizing the prime minister's son for spending time with a Republican.
"Euan Blair will have an invaluable firsthand experience that enables him to understand the contrasting characters of the congressional Republican and Democratic parties today," he said in an e-mail Friday.
