Irish Eyes Frown On Hillary

Hillary Rodham Clinton marched in her first St. Patrick's Day parade but was greeted by many along the parade route with a resounding chorus of boos and shouts of “go back to Arkansas.”

Accompanied by fellow Democrats City Council President Peter Vallone, former Mayor Ed Koch, and Reps. Carolyn Maloney and Joseph Crowley, Clinton ignored her vocal critics and kept smiling and waving.

The largest chorus came at St. Patrick's Cathedral, where parade watchers stood two and three deep on the sidewalk. “Find your own state,” some shouted. “Go back to Arkansas,” others screamed out. Many preferred to hurl generic boos at the first lady.

And while there were Clinton supporters cheering, they were drowned out by the more vocal opposing crowd.

“Rudy, Rudy,” one group of young men shouted as she passed by. “The mayor has done so much for the city,” said John Durkin, of Sayville, on Long Island. “He is absolutely awesome.”

Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, Clinton's Republican rival for the Senate, and Gov. George Pataki led the parade but not before taking a shot at what he calls Clinton's carpetbagger status, saying he hoped she doesn't get lost.

“I think I've got some good guides to find my way,” responded Clinton, marching further back in the parade.

The first lady began a dreary overcast day that included freezing rain and later light snow at a St. Patrick's Cathedral Mass attended by about 5,000 worshippers.

She sat several rows behind Giuliani inside the church but they did not exchange greetings. After the Mass, she attended a breakfast hosted by Vallone at the Princeton Club where she told the group she brought greetings from the president, who was meeting with parties involved in the Northern Ireland peace process.

She made a reference to her new status, saying, “It is just a great pleasure to be here as a New Yorker for St. Patrick's Day.”

Outside, Clinton supporters, wearing stick-on shamrocks that simply said, “Hillary,” got ready to line the 45-block parade route.

She was one of the few prominent Democrats to march. Many Democrats boycott the parade because the Irish Lesbian and Gay Organization is not permitted to march.

The parade is organized by the Ancient Order of Hibernians, a Catholic fraternal group that excludes ILGO on the grounds that homosexuality is not accepted by the Catholic church.

Sixty-six members of the Irish gay group held a protest before the start of the parade and were arrested on disorderly conduct charges when they tried to march down Fifth Avenue.

The first lady has said repeatedly that she wants to highlight her support for the Irish peace process by taking part in the parade, but she has also said she had hoped the parade would be “inclusive” of the gay group.

Her reasoning did little to pacify angry ILGO members

“Hillary came to New York and did not understand Irish politics. She should not be marching in the main parade,” said ILGO member Maxine Wolfe, 58, of Brooklyn. “She's hypocritical for saying she's marching to support the peace process.”

“I understand their concerns about it not being inclusive,” Clinton said when asked to respond to her Irish gay critics. “But this is a day also to honor the values and contributions of Irish Americans. ... when you're in public life you have to balance competing values.”

City Comptroller Alan Hevesi, city Public Advocate Mark Green, former Mayor David Dinkins and U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer are among the Democrats conspicuously absent amid the bagpipes and marching bands.

But Green attended the morning Mass with Clinton, who accented her outfit with a green scarf. “I often come to Mass but I don't march because I'm hoping some day it will be an inclusive parade,” Green said before the service began.

Hevesi, Green and a bevy of other elected Democratic officials did join the first lady on Feb. 27 for an early St. Patrick's Day parade in Queens that permitted gay organizations to march.

In December, Clinton said she would march after she was asked about the parade during a press conference with a group of Irish-American officials. She apparently did not know about the ILGO conflict when she made her initial commitment.