Intelligencer

Pataki’s Big Night

WHO was that tall man enjoying a quiet burger and beer in O’Neill’s Tavern on Third Avenue last Thursday night with a few friends?

It was none other than New York Governor George Pataki, fresh off the most important speech of his life, when he introduced President George W. Bush to the adoring throngs at his convention and tens of millions on television. It was typical of the understated Pataki that a few hours later, instead of hobnobbing it with the wealthy and powerful, he was having his quiet meal in the Irish bar he often calls home when he is in the city.

Pataki told friends that he considered the convention a rousing success for himself. While his speech did not galvanize the way that Rudy Giuliani’s did earlier in the convention, the facts are that he is much more appreciated by the Bushies than Giuliani is. 

The Bush people have long memories and apparently remember that Giuliani sided with John McCain back in 2000 when Bush was running for the first time. Also, Pataki does not have the three wives problem . . . but does share that old comb-over problem. Giuliani has got rid of his, Pataki has not.

Pataki has a bevy of Irish advisors, including Jeff Cleary, Mike Finnegan and Jack Irwin, all men very well known in the Irish American community. Expect a major outreach effort as he prepares for his 2008 presidential run. As we have already noted in this week’s newspaper, it is never too soon to start running these days.

Clinton Not Well in Ireland?

SEVERAL of those with former President Bill Clinton in Ireland during his recent visit remarked on how tired he looked. Indeed, newspaper reports stated clearly that Clinton looked exhausted during his book signings, and photographs taken in Dublin and Belfast confirm that fact.

While newspaper reports over here have stated that there were no warnings that the president had an impending heart condition, many of those who met him in Ireland, with the benefit of hindsight, state that he did not seem his old ebullient self.

One newspaper reporter in the Sunday Independent went so far as to describe him as haggard and old, and not the shining prince that he used to be.

The schedule in Ireland, as always with Clinton, was punishing — signings and meetings in Dublin and Belfast and a side trip to the Clinton peace center in Fermanagh. The adoring crowds in Ireland always seem to pick up his spirits, yet there seems little doubt that he was not feeling himself during the visit.

Party a Success

IT is fair to say that the Irish party hosted by Irish American Republicans during the Republican convention was a major success.

It took place at the Famine Memorial in lower Manhattan, not a stone’s throw from Ground Zero, and the memorial itself was bathed in floodlight for the occasion, which gave the evening a wonderful sense of history and context.

Governor Pataki was there, of course, as well as many other luminaries of the party and hundreds of Irish American supporters, including Republican National Committee chairman Ed Gillespie and former U.S. Ambassador to Ireland Richard Egan, who is nowadays a major fundraiser for Bush.

Egan made the error in his remarks of noting that while his first year in Ireland was wonderful, he found his second year there uneventful, or should we say boring. When questioned on the comment the former EMC chief executive backtracked quickly. The last thing Republicans wanted was any comment that reflected unfavorably on Ireland and the Irish this election season.

King Was Absent

ONE notable name absent at the Irish party was Congressman Peter King, who was always a huge staple at every Irish event. It has been noticeable that since September 11 King has kept his distance from Irish organizations much more than before. Friends say he has also been incensed by the anti-Americanism he perceives in Ireland. It’s a strange twist for a man who once stood shoulder to shoulder with Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams and others long before it was fashionable. 

At one point Ronald Reagan’s advance security banned King from a party platform in Long Island because the president was visiting, and they did not want such a known supporter of Irish Republicanism on the stand with him. 

On a happy note for King, his first grandchild was born just before the convention. Congrats granddad!

Fake Brogue

YOU couldn’t make this stuff up. A state maintenance employee in New Jersey who called himself Father O’Reilly and mimicked a heavy Irish brogue, was charged with shoplifting items from three merchants and trying to return them for cash, asking at each store for directions to his next victim before moving on.

Police arrested Charles W. Kunicki, 50, of Trenton on August 26 and charged him with shoplifting, theft by deception and wrongful impersonation.

A police spokesperson described Kunicki as “American born” and said the brogue was “laid on as part of his dupe.” His arrest was the result of “great police work.”