A Fine Day For The Irish

And a Happy St. Patrick's day to all.  We're a day late with this, but yesterday's Times described the still-striong influence of the Irish on American politics.  The gist - certain politicians are happy to get behind immigration reform as long as they can be seen to be benefiting smiling Irish faces, rather than Hispanic ones:

An Irish Face on the Cause of Citizenship

 

By NINA BERNSTEIN

Rory Dolan's, a restaurant in Yonkers, was packed with hundreds of illegal Irish immigrants on that rainy Friday night in January when the Irish Lobby for Immigration Reform called its first meeting. Niall O'Dowd, the chairman, soon had them cheering.

"You're not just some guy or some woman in the Bronx, you're part of a movement," Mr. O'Dowd told the crowd of construction workers, students and nannies. He was urging them to support a piece of Senate legislation that would let them work legally toward citizenship, rather than punishing them with prison time, as competing bills would.

For months, coalitions of Latino, Asian and African immigrants from 50 countries have been championing the same measure with scant attention, even from New York's Democratic senators. But the Irish struck out on their own six weeks ago, and as so often before in the history of American immigration policy, they have landed center stage. 

Let's note that the Irish represent roughly 25,000 to 50,000 of the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants in this country.  Now we get to the pandering bit:

Last week, when Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton and Charles E. Schumer declared their support for a new path to citizenship, and denounced criminal penalties recently passed by the House of Representatives, they did so not at the large, predominantly Hispanic immigrant march on Washington, but at the much smaller Irish rally held there the following day.

Some in the immigrant coalitions resent being passed over, and worry that the Irish are angling for a separate deal. Others welcome the clout and razzmatazz the Irish bring to a beleaguered cause. And both groups can point to an extraordinary Irish track record of lobbying triumphs, like the creation of thousands of special visas in the 1980's and 90's that one historian of immigration, Roger Daniels, calls "affirmative action for white Europeans."

...Today, the lobby's most crucial role, he said, may be changing the political calculus of Democrats who have shunned the immigration issue as a no-win choice between responding to Latinos and looking tough on immigration. Many Irish-Americans are swing voters, he said, and "it becomes sort of a tipping point for the Democratic Party."

And more pandering coverage follows:

But several immigrant advocates in New York said that even the hint of special treatment for the Irish would inflame the hurt feelings that began in February when Senator Schumer first spoke out on immigration at an Irish Lobby event in Woodside, Queens, after declining invitations by veteran immigrant organizations more representative of an estimated 700,000 illegal immigrants in the state. The Pew Hispanic Center estimates that 78 percent of the nation's nearly 12 million illegal immigrants are from Mexico or elsewhere in Latin America.

Spokesmen for the two senators said that their appearances had been determined only by what fit their schedules, and that their support for immigrants was not meant for a specific group.

Some immigrant leaders were not convinced. Juan Carlos Ruiz, the coordinator of the predominantly Hispanic rally of 40,000 held March 7 on Capitol Hill, said that only one senator had shown up there, without speaking: Richard J. Durbin, an Illinois Democrat. The next day, Mr. Ruiz said, when he and his 14-year-old son stopped by the Irish gathering of about 2,400 and realized that the speakers included Senators Edward M. Kennedy, John McCain, as well as Senators Clinton and Schumer, his son asked, "Why didn't the senators come to our rally?"

"I was heartbroken," Mr. Ruiz said. "I needed to explain to him: 'The immigrants of color, for these senators we are not important enough for them to make a space in their calendar.' "

He added: "The Irish are not at fault. They are suffering the same troubles that we are. But it is discrimination."

Fortunately, it is not George Bush stiffing Hispanics and favoring white European audiences, or the outraged screams would be deafening.

The Sun provides coverage as well.

Comments

[kim]

Ich bin ein Irishkie.
====================

[Dwilkers]

By sheer luck, although I had forgotten St Pat's day, I managed to be in green today so I should be safe from pinching.

[Sue]

I plan on catching meself a leprechaun today. Be he a Fitzgerald or a Fitnuthin remains to be seen.

[maryrose]

Happy St. Patrick's Day to all!
Just returned from the Claddagh Pub {the traditional Irish ring with 2 hands and a heart in between. After a Harp's and A Guiness I'm good to go to the Parade and then to an inner-city Irish parish church where I meet friends and family members each year. Then on to my high school friend's house where we have some wine and some corned beef sandwiches along with Irish soda bread. And what you have is the quintessential St. Patrick's Day celebration. In the olde days when my Irish father was alive ; we would stop by and do some Irish dancig for my dad.Our daughters would also entertain grandpa much to the delight of my Slovenian mother.My Irish grandmother worked as a maid in a rich person's house when she first arrived in 1890.

[TLB]

I didn't read any of the underlying articles, but do any of them mention the fact that the Irish lobby in question is funded by the Irish government?

If Nina Bernstein's article doesn't mention that, please write to public *at* nytimes.com with your thoughts.

[larwyn]

John B Dwyer has posted this at American Thinker:
Happy St. Patrick's Day! IRISH PRAYER

I bind myself to Thee
The power of Heaven,
The light of the sun,
The brightness of the moon,
The splendor of fire,
The flashing of lightning,
The swiftness of the wind,
The depth of the sea,
The stability of earth…
God’s power guide me,
God’s wisdom teach me,
God’s eye to watch over me,
God’s hand to guide me,
God’s shield to shelter me,
Against everyone who
Meditates injury to me
God’s Host to secure me…
Whether far or near,
Whether the few or the many.

More years ago, than I will report,
the best end to St Patrick's Day
was a nice "donny brook"(sic).

So all be safe out there!

[larwyn]

test

[Soylent Red]

All:

I may or may not be incapacitated (and/or incarcerated) for FNL tonight. I will, however, be cheerfully attending to my duties of virgin recruitment and processing (and singing drinking songs with much gusto). Feel free to start w/o me.

OT- Does anyone know where I can lay hands the the Saddam/OBL docs fluttering around the internet today? ABC's link is bogus.

[danking70]

Red,

try

http://fmso.leavenworth.army.mil/products-docex.htm

[cathyf]

Warning -- Roger Simon posted a link to Iraq the Model who has translated one of the docs. I had to CTRL-ALT-DEL and use task manager to kill my browser when I tried to open the translated file.

cathy :-)

[kim]

Tell us again how you smothered that IED, cathyf?
=====================================

[windansea]

soylent

some links here to translated docs

http://michellemalkin.com/archives/004782.htm

[NCC]

Did anyone else notice that this story does not mention the word "undocumented"? The Irish are "illegal."

I don't read that many times stories, but had thought they favored "undocumented," at least when discussing some ethnic groups or illegal immigrants generally.