Whopper of the Week: John Kerry Did he pretend to be Irish?

Slate ^ | March 7, 2003 | Timothy Noah

[Hon]

Whopper of the Week: John Kerry Did he pretend to be Irish? By Timothy Noah Posted Friday, March 7, 2003, at 3:34 PM PT

"[John] Kerry acknowledged that some voters in Massachusetts, the nation's most Irish-American state, may have had the impression that he had Irish roots. He said that he knew of no Irish ancestry and that he had always tried to correct misstatements whenever he learned about them.

"Numerous publications, including the Globe, have stated that Kerry is Irish-American.

"'I'm sure some people see the name and say, "Hey, I think it's this or that," but I've been clear as a bell,' Kerry said. 'I've always been absolutely straight up front about it.'

"Kerry 'has never indicated to anyone that he was Irish and corrected people over the years who assumed he was,' [spokeswoman Kelly] Benander said."

—Michael Kranish, "Search for Kerry's Roots Finds Surprising History," in the Feb. 2 Boston Globe.

''For those of us who are fortunate to share an Irish ancestry, we take great pride in the contributions that Irish-Americans …"

—Senate floor statement by John Kerry, March 18, 1986, as quoted in Frank Phillips' and Brian C. Mooney's "1986 Statement Counters Kerry's Stand on Heritage," in the March 6 Boston Globe.

"As some of you may know, I am part-English and part-Irish. And when my Kerry ancestors first came over to Massachusetts from the old country to find work in the New World, it was my English ancestors who refused to hire them."

—Draft remarks prepared for Kerry in 1984, quoted by Phillips and Mooney in the March 6 Globe. Kerry was lieutenant governor of Massachusetts at the time.

"[I]n 1982, at the state Democratic convention in Springfield, his campaign gave his convention floor workers emerald-green T-shirts and hats featuring the logo, 'Up Kerry'—a takeoff on the rallying cry for the first president of the Republic of Ireland, Eamon de Valera, whose supporters cried, 'Up de Valera!' "

—Phillips and Mooney in the March 6 Globe.

[Wild Irish Rogue]

" Kerry is a Viet Nam vet? I thought he was Italian "

Washington Post,June 1,2003 Page A01 Puff Piece on Senator Poufy Hair

" It wasn't enough that John's pet parakeet could say," Hello,". He taught it to squawk in Italian and French."

[Howlin]

That's it. I was close, though, wasn't I?

[mabelkitty]

A Jewish Frenchman would not be voted Senator in Mass.

[mabelkitty]

As a Kelly, I'll drink to that.

[Hon]

I think you are right. And I think that is why Kerry only "admitted" this when he decided to seek higher office.

Like I said, his whole career has been like this. When he first ran for Congress, he ran as a war hero--but that didn't go over too well in MA in the early 70s.

So he changed his tune and became against the war.

It's as obvious as it is pathetic.

[AmericanInTokyo]

(Gen.) Clark's 1/2 Jewish. Interesting days.

He discussed this last night.

[Hon]

Yeah, like Kerry, Clark discovered he was Jewish when he decided to run for the Presidency:

"Wes Discovers Jewish Roots

September 22, 2003

Guess what? This whole thing is getting out of hand. From the Jewish Times, headline, "Wesley Clark's Jewish Roots." I kid you not.

"Raised a Southern Baptist who later converted to Roman Catholicism, Gen. Wesley Clark knew just what to say when he strode into a Brooklyn yeshiva in 1999, ostensibly to discuss his leadership of NATO's victory in Yugoslavia.

"'I feel a tremendous amount in common with you,' the uniformed four-star general told the stunned roomful of students. 'I am the oldest son, of the oldest son, of the oldest son -- at least five generations, and they were all rabbis.'

"Clark's Jewish father, Benjamin Kanne, died when he was 4, but he has kept in touch with his father's family since his 20s, when he rediscovered his Jewish roots. He is close to a first cousin, Barry Kanne, who heads a pager company in Georgia."

Is it almost predictable now that every Democrat of prominence is going to find Jewish roots in their past? Remember Madeleine Albright? John Kerry all of a sudden found out that somewhere deep, dark in the bowels of his family is a Jewish relative. And even Hillary found some Jewish relationship way, way, way back. Some ancestor was a distant cousin to Moses or some such thing.

What do these people think of the Jewish community? It's a total pander. It never ends. Soon, they are going to find that they've got some black relatives. They'll dig up relatives to match whatever minority happens to be ruling the roost at the time. If it happens to be one-armed amputees from Bosnia, General Wesley Clark will find out he's got some relationship to one-armed amputees from Bosnia. Why have we never heard of Wesley Clark's Jewish roots until he became a presidential candidate? Am I being cynical? You're damn right I am, folks - and happily so."

http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_092203/content/stack_b.guest.html

[Hon]

Say, do Lieberman, Kanne (Clark) and Kohn (Kelly) complain about those damn Neo-Cons (Jews) running the GOP too?

[Kermit the Frog Does theWatusi]

Yep.

[expatpat]

I don't think there's any question that he pretended to be Irish in order to get votes. It would be interesting to see how many Irish votes he will lose now the truth is out. I think the Irish are a lot like Jews in their voting preference for their ethnic comrades.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Another one for your archives!

[Hon]

St. Patrick's Day bump!

[Mr. Lucky]

A potato and a six pack of Guiness?

[GraceCoolidge]

Context: Kerry never delivered the statement orally. He claimed that his staff wrote it and, without showing it to him, submitted it to the Congressional Record to commemorate St. Patrick's Day.

I wonder if any of his other acts as a Senator (like some of his votes) will turn out to have been done by his staff without his knowledge. Maybe that is why he didn't know which way he voted when he tried to answer that Castro question in Florida. Way to take responsibility, Senator Kerry! Maybe when he was talking about those "lying, crooked" people, he was complaining about his staff? Or maybe his staff talked to some foreign leaders who assured them that Senator Kerry was in fact Irish. Could have happened to anybody!

[martin gibson]

HUGE shane macgowan bump...

[Prince Charles]

That's one of my favorite CDs -- along with "Irish Heartbeat" by Van Morrison and The Chieftains.

Slainte!

[Hon]

"I wonder if any of his other acts as a Senator (like some of his votes) will turn out to have been done by his staff without his knowledge. Maybe that is why he didn't know which way he voted when he tried to answer that Castro question in Florida. Way to take responsibility, Senator Kerry!"

I think Kerry just votes the way Ted Kennedy tells him to. Kerry's been working for him since he was 14, you know.

[Trillian]

I'm sure his muslim roots will come out soon too.