Irish-Catholic organization says McCain’s Irish joke was ‘an insult to a whole nationality.’»

[babylonsister]

He's battin' a thousand, isn't he.

http://thinkprogress.org/2008/09/26/mccain-irish-joke/

Irish-Catholic organization says McCain’s Irish joke was ‘an insult to a whole nationality.’»

During a town hall in Scranton, PA on Monday, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) declared that “there’s only one ethnic joke that can be told in American politics and that’s Irish jokes.” McCain then preceded to tell a joke about drunk Irish twins.

Watch it at link~

Politico’s Ben Smith reports today that Seamus Boyle, the president of the Ancient Order of Hibernians, has taken McCain to task in a public letter:

It was a great meeting but when you began your speech with a joke about the Irish, I and many of our fellow Irish Americans in the Ancient Order of Hibernians, were shocked. It was really an insult to a whole nationality to be stereotyped as drunks. The Irish are a jovial people who enjoy life, work hard, help the needy, support our community and our country yet get depicted as drunkards and partiers. As you stated in your speech yesterday the Irish have a great education and work ethic. Senator, I was not the only one offended and I received numerous complaints from a variety of people throughout Pennsylvania and other parts of the country. On behalf of these people, the Ancient Order of Hibernians and myself and my family, I wish you would refrain from demeaning the Irish or any other ethnic group by telling such jokes in the future. I think an apology is in order to those millions of Irish in the United States who were offended by your joke.

[ailsagirl]

1. Thanks for posting... he keeps sinking lower and lower...

[HeraldSquare212]

2. I guess that could hurt in Scranton....

[Cha]

21. Where Joe Biden was born? Yeah,

it could.

[LisaM]

3. God, he's a jackass

When I first started going out with my now SO, he was really into Irish stereotyping, too. I had to educate him that Ireland is the land of saints and scholars. He had never heard that somehow.

[livetohike]

4. John McCain, forever the fly boy playing "carrier landing" in the

bar, joking with his equally immature drunken friends. He is so inappropriate. I am amazed Arizonans continually elected him to the Senate.

What do they see, that I don't?

[musette_sf]

5. well, McStain does seem to have Irish Alzheimer's

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Irish%20Alzheimers

Irish Alzheimers:

term in which one (typically, but not exclusively, an Irishman) doesn't remember anything about his life except his grudges and past quarrels. usually the result of dwelling on negative past experiences instead of family triumphs.

[midnight]

6. Like most cultures they like to be looked upon with esteem.

We Irish Catholic love to drink, and pray, and have babies-wink!

[SuperTrouper]

7. Ok, McAss always seems to insult everyone. Last week Mika, now the Irish

I tell you, no Irish Eyes Smilin' for McStroke

[hisownpetard]

8. He's repulsive on every level! Why does he think a Presidential campaign rally is an appropriate

venue for telling stupid ethnic jokes? What purpose did telling that serve?
What the hell is wrong with that guy?

He prefaces his dumb joke by saying, "The only kind of ethnic joke you can tell in politics
is an Irish joke. I don't know why." All that, just to serve as an excuse for the bad taste
he's about to display.

This man is incompetent, injudicious and insane.
Not to mention, unfunny.

[no_hypocrisy]

9. Not only that. Scranton is a regional diocese of the Catholic Church.

The church is beautiful and well attended. I can't believe his handlers didn't warn him, unless they did and he forgot for whatever reason. He can't tell a joke like Ronald Reagan and everyone feels warm and fuzzy.

[rufus dog]

10. Irish people won't hate him for his lame joke

They will hate them because he is a wimpy little worm. Comes in talking tough and is nothing but a big wuss!

[msanthrope]

11. Go, O'Bama!!!!!!!! n/t

[babylonsister]

13. :) nt

[H2O Man]

12. Cain & Cane

are not really Irish; they are the English names used in Mayo for Kane.

[gauguin57]

14. Maybe Obama should address the Irish-American society, talk of his deep Irish roots

(on the Dunham side of the family -- ancestors in Dublin and County Offally), and take offense at McCain insulting his heritage.

[babylonsister]

16. I don't think that could hurt; there's lots of Irish people out there,

or part Irish like myself. Or maybe do an ad addressing McBush's lameness?

[Submariner]

15. McQueeg is lost cause

[anigbrowl]

17. It would be funny...if an Irish person told it. Scottish guy, not so much.

But then I would say that, as I'm voting for that O'Bama fella.

[Bucky]

24. McCain isn't Scottish OR Irish

The name McCain does come from Ireland, but McCain himself is about as Irish as Flannery O'Connor. He's all American, no matter how tightly I close my eyes and wish him away.

[tritsofme]

18. Was the person that wrote this press release really drunk?

Or just too over sensitive?

[Bucky]

26. Perhaps a lack of nourishment impaired his judgment

and that's what made him so angry.

[SIMPLYB1980]

19. K&R!

[Cha]

20. Wasn't it Ben Smith who said

mccain could claim victory when he went to the debate for some such reason?..sorry I forgot what rationalization he used.


Anyway..not a good idea to disparage anyone but it's seems to be de riguer for john mccain.

[Bucky]

22. If I wasn't drunk right now, I'd get off my Irish ass and start a fight with someone about this.

:hide:

[babylonsister]

25. Oh, do it anyway.

:yoiks:

[medicswife]

23. What a dumbass. nt

[electron_blue]

27. "Irish Twins" LOL As in babies born to the same mother less than 12 months apart?

McCain doesn't neeed to be opening that can of worms right now.

[JuniperLea]

28. To whom do I speak about demanding an apology?

For myself, my children, and my Irish emigrant ancestors?