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Boston fury at Senator's St Patrick's Day charade
The Sunday Telegraph ^ | March 16, 2003 | Julian Coman

Posted on 03/15/2003 4:48:52 PM PST by MadIvan

For a Boston politician chasing the presidency, St Patrick's Day in America's most Irish city should be an opportunity too good to miss, especially if his name is Kerry. Yet when the 102nd St Patrick's Day Parade begins this afternoon, Senator John Kerry will not be there.


Senator John Kerry
The Massachusetts senator, who announced that he would seek the Democratic nomination late last year, has decided he will be campaigning in California at the weekend after it emerged that his ancestors were not Irish, but Austrian.

South Boston, the city's Irish quarter, is struggling to reconcile this new information with three decades' worth of blarney from Mr Kerry. For 33 years, ever since he entered public life, the city has believed him to be an Irish-American - a distinct advantage to a local politician.

Mr Kerry has smiled graciously as fellow senators have made complimentary references to his Irish origins. His campaign workers are habitually decked out in emerald green. One year, thousands of green baseball caps emblazoned with the words "Up Kerry!" were handed out, a happy echo of the days when Ireland's first president, Eamon de Valera, campaigned to shouts of "Up de Valera".

On St Patrick's Day in 1986, Mr Kerry's message to Boston declared: "For those of us who are fortunate enough to share an Irish ancestry, we take great pride in the contributions that Irish-Americans, from the time of the revolutionary war to the present, have made to building a strong and vibrant nation."

Then there was the joke he made when lieutenant-governor of Massachusetts. "As you know," Bostonians heard, "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!"

After receiving a tip-off, however, that his Kerry ancestors weren't quite what they seemed, a local newspaper hired a genealogist to look into the senator's past. His mother, it was well known, came from blue-blooded New England stock. The Irish connection, supposedly, came via the senator's paternal grandfather, Frederick Kerry.

But Frederick Kerry, it was discovered, was in fact Fritz Kohn, an Austrian Jew who committed suicide in Boston in 1921. He had changed his name and converted to Catholicism on arrival in the United States, before succumbing to despair in a Boston hotel room.

As Irish Boston seethes, Mr Kerry and his aides are insistent that the senator has never, explicitly, claimed to come from Ireland.

Mr Kerry also says that his father, Richard, never told him the whole sad story of his grandfather. He claims he only discovered the truth when the genealogist finished his investigation. "I'm sure some people see the name and [say], 'Hey, I think it's this or that,' but I've been as clear as a bell," he said. "I've always been absolutely straight up front about it."

Kelley Benander, his spokesperson, said that the St Patrick's Day speech in 1986 was actually written by one of Mr Kerry's speechwriters, and delivered by the then mayor of Boston, Raymond Flynn.

"These particular remarks were drafted by a staffer," said Ms Benander, "who made an understandable and common but erroneous assumption." As for the joke about his English and Irish forebears, which was being repeated last week in the pubs of the city, it is being presented as just that - a joke.

A consummate politician, Mr Kerry is now trying to turn a crisis into an opportunity. While America's powerful Jewish lobby already has a Democratic presidential candidate in Joe Lieberman, Mr Kerry told a prominent group of Jewish-Americans on the campaign trail: "I am so excited - excited about learning the truth of my background. I have embraced what I have learned. And a light has literally turned on within me, like an epiphany, and I am proud to share this special moment of connection with you."

A senior Democrat official said: "The real race for the Democratic nomination has barely begun, and John is unlikely to lose it because he isn't Irish. But it's a little embarrassing.

"Most candidates worry about secret affairs coming into the open, not their Austrian ancestry."


TOPICS: Extended News; Foreign Affairs; Government; News/Current Events; US: Massachusetts
KEYWORDS: ireland; kerry; notreally
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Well that was a short campaign, wasn't it?

Regards, Ivan


Happy St. Patrick's Day

1 posted on 03/15/2003 4:48:52 PM PST by MadIvan
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To: TEXOKIE; Pan_Yans Wife; mumbo; Siouxz; Otta B Sleepin; Mr. Mulliner; Semper911; Bubbette; ...
Bump!
2 posted on 03/15/2003 4:49:19 PM PST by MadIvan (Learn the power of the Dark Side, www.thedarkside.net)
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To: MadIvan
And today Kerry is quoted as telling a CA fundraiser he didn't need to win any Southern state to win the White House....nothing like dissing a whole segment of the American electorate..
3 posted on 03/15/2003 4:53:56 PM PST by Dog ( Groundhog Day II -- the Sequel.....America held hostage by the UN.......where everyday is the same)
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To: MadIvan
Wherever he is, Al Smith must be roaring with laughter. Kerry's going to have problems running for President cuz he's not Irish.
4 posted on 03/15/2003 4:54:47 PM PST by vbmoneyspender
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To: Dog
Yes indeed, a very short campaign. I doubt his wife's money can spend him out of that kind of trouble.

Regards, Ivan

5 posted on 03/15/2003 4:54:48 PM PST by MadIvan (Learn the power of the Dark Side, www.thedarkside.net)
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To: MadIvan
Maybe to show their displeasure, they can make new little green baseball caps that say "UP KERRY'S".

BTW, I thought Kerry found out he was Jewish, too.
6 posted on 03/15/2003 4:56:06 PM PST by Theresawithanh (A conservative from the PRC (People's Republic of California))
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To: MadIvan
Ivan he is fundraising.....and he has filed for matching funds....which means she won't let him touch her dearly departed dead husband's money..

LOL!

7 posted on 03/15/2003 4:57:11 PM PST by Dog ( Groundhog Day II -- the Sequel.....America held hostage by the UN.......where everyday is the same)
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To: MadIvan
Maybe he can claim to be Finnish.

Tomorrow is St. Urho's Day!
8 posted on 03/15/2003 4:57:39 PM PST by opbuzz
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To: Dog
A sure sign that he knows he will not win a southern state.
9 posted on 03/15/2003 4:57:54 PM PST by gulfcoast6 (deDixie the Dixie Chicks!!!!)
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To: Theresawithanh
Oops! Just re-read the article, and they do mention the Jewish part.

Guess I wasted my $$ on that speed-reading class...
10 posted on 03/15/2003 4:58:28 PM PST by Theresawithanh (A conservative from the PRC (People's Republic of California))
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To: MadIvan
Kerry has been playing up the Kennedyesque "Irish" image for decades here in Massachusetts. He even spent weeks perfecting his "JFK" signature. He's in a lot of trouble here in Massachuesetts. Not that it matters to me one whit, I never cared for the guy and never cast a single vote for him.
11 posted on 03/15/2003 4:58:37 PM PST by SamAdams76 (California wine tastes better - boycott French wine!)
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To: Dog
"And today Kerry is quoted as telling a CA fundraiser he didn't need to win any Southern state to win the White House."

Perhaps Mr. Kerry should ask Algore about not winning Tennessee or Florida.
12 posted on 03/15/2003 4:58:49 PM PST by Beck_isright (going to the war without the french is like duck hunting without your accordian)
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To: opbuzz
Maybe he can claim to be Finnish.

He talks too much to be Finnish; the Finns are noted for being circumspect.

Regards, Ivan

13 posted on 03/15/2003 4:59:00 PM PST by MadIvan (Learn the power of the Dark Side, www.thedarkside.net)
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To: Theresawithanh
Did you know that Jimmy Carter took a speed-reading course exactly 23 years ago today? Check out the time in his diary from 7:07 to 9:27PM.
14 posted on 03/15/2003 5:00:57 PM PST by SamAdams76 (California wine tastes better - boycott French wine!)
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To: MadIvan
If people were stupid enough to vote for him because they thought he was Irish, they are still stupid enough to vote for him whatever other meaningless characteristic he cares to tout - his smile, his hair, his height, etc.

His political positions apparently mean nothing to these parochial yokels. They betray their own fecklessness by their turbid outrage.

15 posted on 03/15/2003 5:06:29 PM PST by Gritty
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To: MadIvan
Thanks for posting Kerry's lies.Full-blooded Irish here.O'Connor
16 posted on 03/15/2003 5:14:31 PM PST by clooney4824
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To: Gritty
Apparently his original plan to run on a green ketchup platform have gone awry. Sounds like a barbeque platform at this point and his *** is on the spit.
17 posted on 03/15/2003 5:16:50 PM PST by Sacajaweau (Hillary: Constitutional Scholar! NOT)
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To: Gritty
Do not laugh at the Irish vote. They vote in large numbers and are loyal to an Irish name. I swear to God that is what I fought about with my Massachusetts relatives for years. I would ask how in hell they could vote for a pro choice, liberal, wealthy drinker like Teddy Kennedy and they could give no answer that made sense. The Rhode Island offspring are the same. They think Patrick is
the man for the future. They know about his problems and
strange behavior and they still vote for him. Go figure.
18 posted on 03/15/2003 5:18:58 PM PST by oldironsides
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To: MadIvan
I have Irish ancestry. I'm glad I do not share it with Mr. Ketchup.
19 posted on 03/15/2003 5:19:39 PM PST by doug from upland (Like Osama, you on the left can kiss my royal Irish *ss.)
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To: Dog
Not only is Kerry not Irish, but he is NOT a Jew. There is Jewish on his father's side, but unless his MOTHER is jewish, Kerry is not a Jew.

But it has been confirmed that he is a blowhard.
20 posted on 03/15/2003 5:21:35 PM PST by Hillary's Lovely Legs (If you liked Hitler, you will LOVE Saddam!!)
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