Intelligencer

Next Parade Grand Marshal?

The New York City St. Patrick’s Parade Committee is already discussing their choice for grand marshal in 2006, according to sources, so it is not only American elections that seem to be run on a permanent basis these days.

The frontrunner is said to be Sean Finlay, publisher of the Irish Echo, who bought over the paper from the Grimes family a few years ago. Finlay, who lives in Ireland and commutes to New York each month, once owned a lucrative mobile phone license in Ireland which he sold for a huge profit.

Other names being talked about are Mike Gibbons, a senior executive with Estee Lauder, and John Sharkey, the former MCI senior executive who has been a huge supporter of Irish causes from the American Ireland Fund on down.

Longer shots might be former Coca-Cola President Don Keough, who is said to be not interested but would make a great grand marshal, and O’Dwyer and Bernstien partner Frank Durkan, who certainly is interested but would hardly pass muster with the archconservatives on the parade committee.

No doubt the choice will have to be well heeled. There is a committee dinner at the Waldorf to be sold out every year, not to mention the many expenses around the parade itself. It will be interesting to see who the choice is.

New Consul Set to Arrive

Eugene Hutchinson, former Irish consul general in New York, has departed these shores for his new posting in Kuala Lumpur via Ireland, where he will be vacationing.

His replacement, Tim O’Connor, a Limerick native, is expected to be in situ come September 1 when the city starts to return to normality.

O’Connor, who was recently awarded an honorary doctorate by Maynooth College for his work on the peace process, will no doubt be hoping he has a less strenuous beginning to his tenure.

Just weeks after Hutchinson arrived he found himself in the middle of the September 11 maelstrom with dozens of Irish citizens involved.

O’Connor will be arriving during the period when the fate of the Kennedy/McCain immigration bill will likely be decided in Congress which no doubt will be a major priority for the Irish government.

O’Connor has spent much of his recent career on the peace process, so he will certainly be very familiar with the many aspects of that including the American role. It will be interesting to see where the process is at by the time he comes.

King Lashes Out

Interesting that one of the point men for the Republican Party on the Karl Rove controversy continues to be Congressman Peter King, a man who had his share of problems with the Bush administration in the beginning.

King originally backed John McCain in 2000, adding to his maverick reputation. Now, however, he is very much on the inside and has proven to be Rove’s most enthusiastic defender.

Democrats claim King crossed the line last week when asked about the relentless media focus on Rove and whether he outed the wife of an administration opponent, Joe Wilson, as a covert CIA agent.

King’s said, “ I think people like Tim Russert and the others, who gave this guy (Joe Wilson) such a free ride and all the media, they’re the ones to be shot, not Karl Rove.”

That comment sure raised eyebrows, but King did not back down. It is certainly another example of how hard-nosed the Long Island congressman has become in defense of the Bush administration since September 11.

Blair Hopes for Breakthrough

British Prime Minister Tony Blair, no doubt, will be hoping for the big breakthrough in the peace process in the next few weeks, especially after the London bombings.

While the British people rallied around Blair in the immediate aftermath of the terrorist attack in London on Thursday, July 7, the voices of criticism over his role as America’s ally in Iraq swiftly came to the surface. The logic was that the terrorists would never have attacked if Blair had never agreed to the invasion of Iraq.

All of which is pure speculation, of course, but in a week or two Blair could really do with a major policy accomplishment which the statement by the IRA announcing they are joining the political path certainly would accomplish.

Incidentally, there is renewed speculation that because of London winning the Olympic games in 2012 that Blair may decide after all to stay on as Labor Party leader in the hopes o f being prime minister when the biggest event in modern times comes to London.

British bookmakers who had previously rated such a possibility at 50/1 have now slashed those odds to 16/1 after some money at the earlier price. It seems unlikely but politics is, as always, an unpredictable profession.