Reiss’s Status Now Uncertain

The departure of Colin Powell from the State Department raises a major question mark over the future of Mitchell Reiss as the Bush administration’s special envoy to Ireland.

Reiss has long been considered a Powell protégé and was a key appointee as director of policy planning in the State Department. Prior to coming to the State Department Reiss was a professor in international relations at William and Mary College.

Reiss’s close links to Powell may well mean that Powell’s successor Condoleezza Rice will decide to shift him. Reiss is considered an expert on North Korea and has been spending considerable time on that issue in recent months.

When Rice takes over State, it will be interesting to see what her attitude to the peace process in Ireland is. Certainly as National Security Advisor she never seemed to have the slightest interest in Ireland.

Indeed, she has been particularly committed to the “special relationship” between Britain and the U.S., not surprising given the fact that British Prime Minister Tony Blair has been such a supporter of President Bush on Iraq.

Rice may well decide she wants her own team around her at State, which may leave Reiss on the outside looking in. Certainly, it seems from reports that the new State Department heads will be looking for hard-liners rather than pragmatists, as Powell tended to hire.

One thing is for sure. With the talks in Northern Ireland at a critical phase, it is a bad time for uncertainty to develop as to the status of the American special envoy, especially as Reiss appeared to have found his sea legs and was considered to have contributed quite a lot to the most recent series of roundtable talks.

Whiskey in The Jar 

It seems there will be whiskey in the jar at the Ronald Reagan presidential center in Simi Valley California shortly. The Ronald Reagan pub in Ballyporeen, Co. Tipperary which Reagan visited in 1984 will be shipped brick for brick across the world and be reconstituted at the Reagan center.

The pub was scheduled to close down, and new owners were being sought when a former advance man for Reagan became aware of the situation. In the pouring of a pint the deed was done and the family gladly sold out to their most famous former customer.

Now the Reagan center people say there will be a celebration every St. Patrick’s Day in the pub, and glasses raised to the former president’s visit to his ancestral home in Ballyporeen (the town of the small potatoes, if you must know) in Tipperary. Only in America, folks.

Gore a Candidate?

Expect Al Gore to be among the candidates for president in 2008 when the primaries come around.

Gore has told Irish confidantes that he wants a last shot at the presidency and that he may well be the natural alternative if the Bush years end up badly.

Gore, former candidate John Kerry, Senator Hillary Clinton, Senator Evan Bayh, General Wesley Clark and Senator John Edwards are all expected to face the starter for the 2008 nomination.

That should be some bumping match heading in to the clubhouse turn, and the winner will surely suffer lots of lumps in the process.

Meanwhile, on the Republican side, Rudy Giuliani, Senator John McCain, Senator Bill Frist, Senator Rick Santorum even Attorney General John Ashcroft may line up for the starting bell. It looks like 2007 and the nomination fights will be a very interesting spectacle.

Higgins Shades It in Buffalo

Democratic Congressman Elect Brian Higgins narrowly took the 27th District seat in Buffalo, New York, formerly held by Jack Quinn, the Republican who was well known in Irish American circles.

Quinn won great notoriety among supporters of former President Bill Clinton when he first indicated he would vote against impeachment and then voted for it. When Clinton heard that Quinn was changing his vote he apparently knew that impeachment was then inevitable.

Higgins, whose victory party was at the Irish Center in Buffalo, is the grandson of Irish immigrants who has always kept in close touch with his roots throughout his political career.

It was a close run race in the end, with Higgins winning by a handful of votes over Nancy Naples, but the jubilation in the Democratic Party camp was short lived because Naples refused to concede for some days afterwards. 

The 27th was always going to be a toss-up, very real considering that the seat was marginal, as it had been during Jack Quinn’s time.

Given his Irish links there is little doubt that Higgins will become a member of the Irish lobby and may well play a prominent role there. 

By Land Or By Bike

Give it up for former New York Governor Hugh Carey. The 84-year-old, one of the great characters in New York political life, found he had been dropped at the wrong address when going to a wedding last weekend. 

Unable to find a cab, Carey engaged a rickshaw driver to take him across town on one of the coldest nights of the year to the wedding at Mike Carty’s Manhattan Club. Now there’s a real trouper!