Was Kenny Pushed?

WAS U.S. Ambassador James Kenny in Dublin quietly nudged from his office rather than replaced?

It was announced recently back that a new ambassador, Thomas C. Foley, a Connecticut resident and close associate of the Bush family, was to take over in Dublin from Kenny.

Then last week came the surprising news that Foley had been up for confirmation before the Senate on Wednesday, June 28, same day as the Irish Lobby for Immigration Reform (ILIR) rally in Washington, D.C.

Rarely has a confirmation hearing been held as quickly as has happened with Foley, in this case within a couple of weeks of the announcement.

Usually it takes months to have an ambassador properly prepped for confirmation, which can often be a tricky process. A few years back a nominee, William FitzGerald, made a fool of himself when declaring that fighting between Unionists and Loyalists had to stop if peace was to come about in Northern Ireland. He never recovered from that gaffe.

Why the unseemly haste on this occasion then? Could it be, as some have suggested, that Kenny, a hugely popular figure in Ireland, had gone native a bit too much for the ideologues in the State Department who reportedly were not happy with some of his comments? Was Kenny sufficiently pro-Iraq, or had he gone native in terms of the huge Irish opposition to the war?

Certainly, those who know Kenny have rarely encountered a better ambassador to Ireland, a man who has made it his business to get attuned to the Irish body politic and who has played a leading role in trying to bring American influence to bear on the situation in the North.

Of course that may be his problem - he perhaps has become too attuned to Ireland. Certainly Foley, who was a senior figure in Iraq where he handled Bush’s privatization program, is unlikely to go off message in any way when he gets to Dublin.

Kennedy Had Problems, Too

OF course, difficulties between a U.S. ambassador and his/her bosses back in the State Department are nothing new. Jean Kennedy Smith was regularly in clashes with State Department personnel when she held the post in Dublin during the Clinton era.

Kennedy Smith took major risks for peace during her time in Dublin and went completely off script as far as the cautious State Department honchos were concerned.

She was fearless in driving the American involvement in the peace process at a time when the State Department under Warren Christopher very much wanted to toe the traditional pro-British line.

Of course Kennedy Smith, unlike Kenny, had a very powerful ally in her brother Senator Edward Kennedy, who ensured that his sister was protected from any efforts to replace her from within the State Department.

Certainly there is no question that several attempts were made to have Kennedy Smith removed, and there were some very heated meetings between her and some of her own staff, many of whom were spreading rumors about her. In the end she stayed and did a wonderful job driving the peace process forward.

Kenny too, will be well remembered in that regard, though obviously it was a different time.

Irish for McCain or Clinton?

MOST pundits have long believed that Senator Hillary Clinton would have overwhelming support from the activist Irish community come the next election, given her work on the peace process and her close friendships in the community over many years.

Now, however, it appears that Senator John McCain may be trying to eat into that support, especially on the immigration issue.

McCain has attended three rallies for ILIR in the past few months, including a huge affair in the Bronx in March where he was the guest of honor. Clinton attended one meeting, the first ILIR rally on Capitol Hill in March, where she made her pro-immigration reform position known for the first time.

McCain has a senior Irish-born staffer, Angela Hession, who has been making inroads for the senator among Irish Americans for several months now.

Clinton has been relatively quiet on the issue of immigration reform. After she attended the ILIR meeting she was criticized by some Hispanic groups for not attending their events.

McCain has no such qualms. Later this month he will be featured on the cover of Irish America magazine after giving an interview in which he discusses his Irish roots at length and his great admiration for President John F. Kennedy.

It is early days yet, but if it is a battle between McCain and Clinton in 2008 then it could be an interesting debate in Irish American circles as to who has reached out the most to the community. A year ago everyone would have said Clinton, but that certainly could be changing.

Victory for Reform

FOR months conservative political activists were pointing to the Republican primary in Utah last week where Congressman Chris Cannon, an outspoken ally of President Bush on immigration reform, was facing a tough challenge from a millionaire opponent, John Jacobs, who was running on an anti-immigrant platform.

A victory for Jacob would spell doom for pro-immigrant Republican representatives, the right wing warned. Indeed, a recent article in The Wall Street Journal said as much.

In any event Cannon won by a landslide, rocking the anti-immigrant groups back on their heels. They tried to claim that President Bush won it for Cannon by a relentless last minute phone campaign but their protests sounded hollow.

After all, hadn’t the anti-immigrant forces spent over $5 million in California ensuring that one of their candidates won a recent seat there in a safe Republican district?

“I can’t overstate the importance of that,” Congressman Floyd Flake a pro-immigration reform Republican from Arizona said. “It shows you can be for comprehensive immigration reform and still win a Republican primary.” Interesting.