Intelligencer

Trimble Visits With GOP

IT appears that the Ulster Unionist Party is far more at home with the Republicans than with the Democratic Party here in the U.S. Among those attending this week’s convention is party leader David Trimble and former MP Ken McGuinness. 

Trimble was quite visible on the first night of the convention, and has made it clear previously that he much prefers the President George W. Bush take on Northern Ireland to that of Bush’s predecessor Bill Clinton.

Indeed, when Clinton stated that he would like to meet Trimble during a recent visit to Belfast, the Ulster Unionist leader demurred, saying he was on his way to the convention in New York.

That would not be the first time that Trimble stood the ex-president up, most notably when Clinton was speaking in Belfast and Trimble left the stage for what he said was another engagement some years back.

It’s strange really, if you consider that Trimble won his Nobel Peace Prize on the back of efforts by Clinton and others to make the Irish peace process work, that he makes such little effort with the former American president. 

However, Unionists and British Tories generally have always found a more natural home for themselves in the Republican Party over here, and despite the peace process it seems that will continue to be the case.

An Attack on Clinton

SPEAKING of Ulster Unionists and Clinton, there was quite an attack on Clinton by chief Trimble strategist Steven King in the Irish Times last week. King argued that by giving Gerry Adams a visa too soon the Clinton White House allowed a great opportunity to pass to put pressure on the IRA.

It is a bizarre argument given the fact that the Adams visa undoubtedly moved up the IRA ceasefire rather than set it back. The IRA would certainly not have responded to a heavy-handed approach by the U.S. trying to wring concessions out of them.

King is just the latest in a recent group of Unionists who are carrying out their own version of revisionist history when it comes to the peace process and the American role. In their world, far from helping the peace process President Clinton damaged it, and the Bush softly-softly approach has been far more helpful overall.

It is a hard argument to stand up, however. How do you argue that Senator George Mitchell’s efforts were not successful? Or indeed, that Bush envoys Richard Haass and Mitchell Reiss have been able to improve on the Mitchell legacy.

No, it seems more and more that the Ulster Unionist Party is content to draw back into itself, and once again blame as many outside forces as they can for the sorry situation they find themselves in 10 years after the IRA ceasefire.

Criticizing Irish Statement

THERE has been some carping criticism of the Republican platform statement on Ireland by leading Democrats.

As one person stated, “In 2000, the Republicans promised a review of extradition treaties. But President Bush has sent to the Senate a new U.S./U.K. extradition treaty, which Irish Americans oppose and about which legal experts have grave concerns. These commitments have vanished from the 2004 platform.”

The same person points out that at the convention, Irish American Republicans thanked President Bush for traveling to Belfast last year to support the full implementation of the Good Friday Agreement. 

But President Bush did not travel to Northern Ireland because of the Good Friday Agreement. He traveled to Northern Ireland to meet with British Prime Minister Tony Blair to discuss Iraq, far from the demonstrations he would have faced in England.

The source points out that even David Trimble, an ardent supporter of President Bush, earlier this year admitted that the President’s visit was about Iraq, and that the meeting was held in Northern Ireland because of security concerns.

Republicans, of course, can respond in kind. It is clear that the one sentence Democratic Party platform statement was incomplete in many respects, and that despite the best efforts of Irish activists changes that were sought were denied.

Sure, the Democrats expanded on their statement in a separate booklet, but Republicans point out that it hardly constituted a major breakthrough and was full of the usual type of essentially empty language. 

Let’s face it — neither party distinguished themselves in their party platform statements on Ireland this year as far as activist Irish Americans are concerned.

Convention Security Craze

AND now for something completely different. A colleague reports on how crazy the security situation at the Republican convention is, and how it affected him personally.

He was actually leaving the building when stopped by an overzealous Republican volunteer who noticed that his press pass stated that he was cleared for the afternoon session and not the morning one. The colleague explained that a Secret Service man had spotted the mistake earlier but had allowed him to proceed after a security check.

Not good enough for the Republican volunteer, however, who immediately demanded that he come with him to the Secret Service post, which was nearby. When the friend told him he was leaving the building anyway and it had been a minor oversight, the Republican volunteer insisted otherwise. 

Perhaps, our colleague surmised, he thought he had caught the Unibomber or somebody.

The Secret Service eventually came over and seemed embarrassed by the brouhaha. The Republican volunteer stalked off upset that he had not, after all, discovered a fiendish plot to undermine the convention.