Catholic League president Bill Donohue took notice of Senator Hillary Clinton’s decision to march in this year’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade in New York City:
“In 2000, when Hillary Clinton was running for the U.S. Senate in New York, she marched in the St. Patrick’s Day Parade. But that didn’t sit too well with gay activists who blasted her for marching in a parade that excludes gays from marching under their own banner. Indeed, Christine Quinn, now the City Council Speaker and then a councilwoman, told the Daily News in 2001 that she was ‘very disappointed and critical of Mrs. Clinton’s decision to march last year.’ And the Journal News reported that Clinton ‘was roundly criticized by her gay supporters for marching in last year’s parade.’ So what happened in 2001? Hillary said she had a scheduling conflict that prevented her from marching, an excuse that was denounced by former New York City Mayor Ed Koch as ‘ridiculous.’
“Having been beaten up for not marching in 2001, Hillary decided to march in 2002, and once again she was criticized by gay activists for doing so. This explains why she sat out the parades of 2003, 2004 and 2005. So why is Hillary marching in 2006? Because it’s an election year. No doubt she’ll march again for the next couple of years because she wants to be elected president in 2008.
“Hillary Clinton’s chameleonic response to the St. Patrick’s Day Parade is grounded in politics and deceit. She will pander to gays one year, to Irish Catholics the next. She’s fooling no one save her loyalists, a shrinking band of bi-coastal, switch-hitting fat cats.”
