Posts Tagged ‘Ireland’

World Cup

June 14th, 2010 by John Feehery

Like Big Wheels, I missed the soccer generation.

Let me explain.  My younger brother was the first in my family to get a Big Wheel, because they came out just at the right time for his height and weight.  I was too big to ever ride a Big Wheel.

And by the time soccer came to my high school, I was already set on football, baseball and especially basketball.  I didn’t have time on my hands to get into soccer because I was too busy doing the other stuff.

So, when it comes to soccer (or football as they call it in other parts of the world), I am a fair weather fan.  I don’t particularly love the game, unless it is the World Cup, and even then, I only root for two teams, the United States and Ireland.

I remember several years ago when the Irish beat the Italians in the World Cup in New York.  That gave me an excuse to go to the Dubliner and hoist of few pints in honor of my ancestral home (as if I needed an excuse).  Read more...

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Posted in Foreign Relations, sports | No Comments »

Friday Musings

June 11th, 2010 by John Feehery

World Cup Fans / Photo credit: Audrey & Patrick Scales

It is an overdone cliché to thank the good Lord for Friday, but this has been a particularly long week, so stringing a coherent column together might be beyond my capability today.  But that won’t stop me from some Friday musings.  Read more...

  • Talk about Chutzpah.  House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is seriously considering ditching the outside ethics panel that she trumpeted as one of the most important achievements of her tenure.  She did it because she wanted to convince the voters that Democrats were the most ethical people in the whole, entire world.  It didn’t work. Most voters still think the Democrats are incurably corrupt.  According to news reports, Members of the Congressional Black Caucus are leading the charge to neuter the Office of Congressional Ethics, because that office has the temerity to look at what the members of the CBC are actually doing and ignoring what they are saying.

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Posted in Government, Politics, Theory, sports | 1 Comment »

The March 18th Deadline

March 8th, 2010 by John Feehery

Most people looked at the President’s March 18th health care deadline and saw a totally unrealistic, pie-in-the-sky, hail Mary pass from a guy who has set down several totally unrealistic, pie-in-the-sky, hail Mary pass deadlines in the past.

Remember, when he wanted a health care law on his desk last August?  Or when he wanted it done before Thanksgiving? Or Christmas?

Now he wants it done the day after the most important holiday of the year, St. Patrick’s Day.

My middle name is Patrick, so I have always taken St. Patrick’s Day very seriously.

I believe that St. Patrick’s Day should be a national holiday, and as most people know about me, I don’t do any meetings on that day, unless, they are held at a very particular place.

Having a health care vote on the day after St. Patrick’s Day offends me personally.  Everybody knows that the day after St. Patrick Day should be a day of reflection and quiet contemplation, not a day of yelling, screaming, arm-twisting and fulminating at the mouth.  My head hurts just thinking about it.  Read more...

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Posted in Financial Crisis, Government, Politics, spending | 2 Comments »

McCain and Ireland (John Feehery)

June 12th, 2008 by John Feehery

 

This appeared a year ago last March in The Hill pundits Blog:

I serve on the board of a charity organization called Cooperation Ireland, dedicated to promoting peace in Northern Ireland between the nationalist and loyalist communities. This organization helps fund projects focused on bringing together two communities that have rarely intermingled in the last 30 years, communities that don’t really know, like or trust each other. Building peace is hard work, and the really hard work is not done by the politicians, it is done by the people.

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) spoke to our annual dinner in New York last night, and he did a great job. I am supporting Rudy Giuliani for president (he was honored by the group last year), but that doesn’t mean that I don’t respect McCain and his contributions to our nation.

McCain made the link between the good news in Ireland and the increasingly bad news in Iraq. Building civil societies out of communities that are sharply divided is hard work. Anybody looking for easy answers to the situation in Iraq is kidding himself. Just look how hard it was to implement the Good Friday Accords. Ten years later, and only now are the people of Northern Ireland getting the devolved government that had been promised.  Read more...

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Posted in Government, Politics, Theory | No Comments »