Dodd, Lieberman at odds

THERE will be no love lost between Senator Joe Lieberman and Senator Chris Dodd, party colleagues in Connecticut after this election.

At the time of writing Lieberman is well ahead in his race for re-election, running as an independent after losing the Democratic primary to Ned Lamont in August.

After Lamont’s victory Dodd, Lieberman’s Senate colleague, backed Lamont despite the fact that Lieberman was running as an independent.

It caused considerable friction between the two men, with Lieberman privately very angry at his Irish American colleague.

Dodd, however, had little choice. He has decided on an outsider run for the Democratic nomination in 2008. In order to have any chance he has to run to the left in a primary filled with centrists.

Given the hostility to Lieberman from the left, especially the powerful bloggers, he simply had no choice but to back their preferred candidate Lamont.

It should be interesting if, as expected, both men are back in the Senate after the election. Dodd, one of the most popular and gregarious politicians in the Senate, will likely make the first move to heal the fresh wound. Whether Lieberman will buy it remains to be seen.

Pelosi’s Irish District

CONGRESSWOMAN Nancy Pelosi represents one of the most Irish neighborhoods in California, an interesting aside if she becomes speaker.

Her district includes the Richmond and Sunset District of San Francisco, now predominantly Asian but with a very large Irish population also. The United Irish Cultural Center, the fulcrum of much of the Irish activity in the city, is in the neighborhood.

It is the old seat of Congress-man Phil Burton, who once had speaker ambitions himself. Burton was an incredible political strategist, especially when it came to redrawing constituencies in favor of democratic candidates.

Republicans targeted him on one memorable occasion in the early 1980s but Burton spent heavily, including in the local Irish American media, to beat off the challenge. The highlight of his comeback victory was a pre-election raucous Irish party attended by Ted Kennedy which got his supporters out in their thousands to vote.

His wife, Sala, took the seat on his untimely death, but she herself passed away. She anointed Pelosi, then a city supervisor, as her replacement.

Pelosi has kept a close relationship with the Irish community ever since being elected. Indeed, local real estate lawyer and realtor Bart Murphy, head of the Coalition of Irish Immigrant Centers, is a key ally for her.

Big Win for Reiss

DR. Mitchell Reiss, White House special envoy on Northern Ireland, has certainly pulled out a victory by getting the Bush administration to agree to lift the fundraising ban on Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams.

It is an overdue victory for Reiss, who has often found himself at the mercy of hardliners in the National Security Council who want as little to do with Ireland as possible.

Reiss, however, has persevered, and there is little doubt that he did an outstanding job overcoming internal opposition to drop the Adams ban.

For those of us continuously involved in the issue it appeared to be a no brainer that the fundraising privilege would be restored after Adams and Sinn Fein helped negotiate the St. Andrews Agreement. However, the Bush administration’s reluctance to have anything whatever to do with the Irish issue has made life difficult for Reiss, who has had to battle very hard to have Adams come to the White House for the annual St. Patrick’s Day festivities.

A relived Reiss met Irish community leaders last week, and it was obvious to all that he felt he had finally got the upper hand on an issue of major importance. Let’s hope he can keep it up.

Iraqis Visit Policing Board

YET another example of how far things have come in Northern Ireland was given by the arrival of a top-level delegation of Iraqi officials, both Sunni and Shiite, to study how the peace process has worked in the North.

The delegation of high ranking Iraqi officials met with the chairman and vice chairman of the Northern Ireland Policing Board to find out about policing in the North.

The group, led by Iraqi National Security Adviser Muwarraq Al Rubaie, was in Ireland to study ways of dealing with sectarian violence and conflict resolution. They met with Policing Board Chairman Professor Sir Desmond Rea and Vice Chairman Barry Gilligan to find out more about the policing reform that has taken place here in recent years.

After the meeting, Rea said, “I am delighted to have met with Dr. Rubaie and his colleagues to discuss with them the significant changes that have taken place in policing in Northern Ireland.”

Rubaie stated, “We are pleased to have had the opportunity to hear about the best practice model of policing that has been put in place in Northern Ireland. There are similarities and dissimilarities between Iraq and Northern Ireland. In Iraq there is a religious background to the problems we are facing. In Northern Ireland there was also conflict, but this has now largely been resolved.

“Through a range of meetings, we want to study the processes that were put in place here and learn some lessons that we can bring back to Baghdad to help us develop the National Reconciliation and Dialogue Program that has been announced by Prime Minister Maliki.”