Spitzer Does Irish Homework

Right after St. Patrick’s Day New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer will be in Ireland, north and south, for a four-day visit.

He’ll be accompanied by a group of Irish American lawyers and activists, and plans to acquaint himself with an issue which still plays heavily with the Irish American electorate in his home state.

“I’m looking forward to learning this issue, so I can understand it better,” Spitzer, Democratic candidate for the New York governorship in 2006, said during a recent meeting with the Irish Voice.

It is smart politics. If the Jewish New Yorker has a weakness it is among white ethnic Catholics who have been very supportive of the incumbent New York Governor George Pataki. Spitzer means to start introducing himself to the Irish ethnic community and is starting with the trip to Ireland.

He leaves nothing to chance. His deputy Marty Mack, short for McGillycuddy, is extremely well versed on Irish issues and has ensured that Spitzer meets a large cross section of the Irish American community before he heads to Ireland.

Lawyers John Connorton and Brian O’Dwyer have also been very instrumental in providing Spitzer access to the Irish American community.

Spitzer is a quick study. He has already mastered the intricacies of the various Irish political parties and has spoken to his close friend Richard Haass, formerly U.S. special envoy to Ireland.

Spitzer meets Haass almost every weekday morning as he drops off his three children at school and Haass walks to work at the nearby Council on Foreign Relations.

Spitzer’s trip to Ireland is part of the inevitable tableau of New York politics in which the three I’s — Irish, Italian and Israeli — play a huge part.

The Irish will likely see a politician like no other since Bill Clinton. He has that Clintonian instinctive grasp of issues and personal charm that is a lethal combination. Right now he looks a shoo-in for governor and who knows what beyond that.

Who Will Oppose Spitzer?

Speaking of Spitzer’s likely opponent next year, it seems more and more Republicans are desperately looking at two Irish American politicians as their only hope of pulling off the upset if, as seems certain, Pataki does not run.

Congressmen John Sweeney from Saratoga and Pete King from Long Island are the only recognizable names being put about as opponents for Spitzer.

Many Republicans see Sweeney as a George Pataki clone, an upstate moderate Catholic Republican who has flown under the radar for several years now while putting together a good organization.

King, on the other hand, is nothing if not outspoken, and he has a hard-core support within the party which would stand to him if he decided to run.

Both are canny politicians who will not willingly embark on a suicide mission if the polls show Spitzer is unbeatable, though. If that is the case expect a Howard Mills-type candidate, the obscure assemblyman who ran against Senator Chuck Schumer last year.

Meanwhile, word about Senator Hillary Clinton’s likely opponent next year indicates that Manhattan lawyer Ed Cox, son-in-law of Richard Nixon, is the likely candidate at present, if none of the big names decides to run. That sounds like another sacrificial lamb.

Ahern in Syracuse, D.C.

Taoiseach (Prime Minster) Bertie Ahern will be at the Syracuse St. Patrick’s parade in upstate New York next Tuesday, March 15.

The presence of Ahern is a nod in the direction of local Congressman James Walsh, head of the Friends of Ireland group in Congress. Walsh has been an impassioned friend of the peace process, and Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams appeared at the parade last year.

No doubt Ahern will be updating Walsh on recent events, but the Syracuse representative has an independent view of things when it comes to Ireland so it may not be all sweetness and light.

Following the Syracuse march Ahern will be going to Washington, D.C., where he will be a guest at the American Ireland Fund dinner on March 16 which will honor Senator John McCain. On St. Patrick’s Ahern will be at the White House to meet President Bush.

Sinn Fein Vote Watch

Sinn Fein will be anxiously watching the results of the by-election in Meath this week to determine how much the party has been damaged by the recent flood of bad publicity.

Their candidate in Meath is Joe Reilly, a well-known local politician who had high hopes of a Dail (Parliament) seat in the last general election.

Reilly came close, so there will be much attention paid to how he does on this occasion. Recent polls have indicated a contradictory trend in the sense that the Sinn Fein vote has remained reasonably steady, but the approval ratings of Gerry Adams have plummeted.

The contest is to replace John Bruton, former taoiseach and now European Ambassador to the United States.