Nobody’s saying much about it on the record. Pacheco wouldn’t comment. Neither would Moakley’s office, although it did confirm a “private meeting” between the two. The substance of the meeting remains undisclosed, but the parley did involve — in some way — the future plans of Pacheco, who’s weighing a run for Congress.

Although he lacks a famous name and is not even Irish — a possible drawback in what The Almanac of American Politics calls the most Irish congressional district in the country — Pacheco would make a formidable candidate. Moakley’s office has indicated that the congressman is open to meeting with other prospective candidates as well.

A Pacheco candidacy would resemble that of Mike Capuano for the Eighth Congressional District in 1998. Back then, the pundits all focused on which high-profile candidate would emerge from Boston to take Joe Kennedy’s place. Capuano won because he had a solid base in Somerville to vault him to the top. Like Capuano, Pacheco possesses a solid political organization. The Moakley organization, which Max Kennedy and the other potential candidates would need in order to win, relies heavily upon Pacheco in the southern part of the district, where he is strongest.

Oddly, ethnicity could also work in Pacheco’s favor. Many of the people mentioned so far as replacements for Moakley — State Senator Brian Joyce of Milton, State Senator Marian Walsh of West Roxbury, former state representative James Brett — are Irish. Pacheco is Portuguese. But so are many residents of the district’s central and southern portions. Taunton is more than 50 percent Portuguese; further north, Stoughton is nearly one-third Portuguese, according to Frank Souza, the director of the Center for Portuguese Studies and Culture at UMass Dartmouth.

Another advantage for Pacheco is his vaunted skill at fundraising. He’s active with the centrist Democratic Leadership Council, has ties to the national Democratic Party apparatus, and raised money for Al Gore during the recent presidential campaign.

Moakley has not yet anointed a successor, and the meeting suggests that Kennedy may not be a shoo-in for the congressman’s blessing. And that’s despite the hard sell the Kennedys are giving him right now. The Kennedys pulled out all the stops last week at the John F. Kennedy Library, where they feted the South Boston congressman. But Moakley, ever the seasoned pol, is apparently keeping his options open even as he accepts the accolades.