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boston.com
1986 statement counters Kerry's stand on heritage
By Frank Phillips and Brian C. Mooney, Globe Staff, 3/6/2003
S Senator John F. Kerry's insistence that he has been ''clear as a bell'' in never having claimed Irish ancestry is undercut by a statement introduced the day after St. Patrick's Day 17 years ago in which he identified himself as Irish-American.
''For those of us who are fortunate to share an Irish ancestory, we take great pride in the contributions that Irish-Americans, from the time of the Revolutionary War to the present, have made to building a strong and vibrant nation,'' Kerry told Senate colleagues in a March 18, 1986 statement.
Kerry's remarks, recorded in the Congressional Record, were part of his introduction of a St. Patrick's Day message by then-Boston mayor Raymond L. Flynn that the senator wanted printed in the publication.
Kelley Benander, a Kerry aide, said the senator did not make the statement in person, but rather his staff prepared a written statement that was submitted to the clerk for recording. She said Kerry never saw the statement.
''John Kerry did not deliver these remarks nor did he see this line,'' Benander said. ''Anyone familiar with Capitol Hill knows that it is common routine for statements to be inserted in the Congressional Record rather than being delivered on the Senate floor. These particular remarks were drafted by a staffer who made an understandable and common but erroneous assumption.''
Benander said Kerry, as a US senator, has made numerous statements and speeches about Irish-American political figures and issues in which he never claimed to have Irish heritage.
Ronald F. Rosenblith, Kerry's chief of staff at the time the 1986 Senate statement was printed, blamed a staff error. ''This is not the type of statement that Senator Kerry would have seen, and the error was an unfortunate staff mistake,'' Rosenblith said.
Much discussion of Kerry's ethnic heritage has emerged in recent weeks, after a Globe story revealed that, despite widespread perceptions that he had Irish ancestry, Kerry's roots were Austrian through his father, Richard Kerry. His mother came from Boston blue-blood background.
Some observers have suggested the lack of clarity about his family origins reflects Kerry's ill-defined identity and tendency to leave misimpressions that are politically advantageous to him. Others find the story of Kerry's background, which includes an Austrian immigrant grandfather who committed suicide at a Boston hotel, a poignant and painful personal tale of a man learning only late in life about where he came from.
Kerry's claim of Irish ancestry in the Senate statement contradicts his strong assertions to the Globe last month that he never suggested he had Irish blood and sought to correct any published reports that said otherwise.
''I'm sure some people see the name and, `Hey, I think it's this or that' but I've been clear as a bell,'' Kerry told Globe reporter Michael Kranish, who had researched his genealogy. ''I've always been absolutely straight up front about it.''
It is not the only time Kerry's supposed Irishness has turned up in statements attributable to him. A draft of remarks prepared for Kerry when he was Massachusetts lieutenant governor includes this passage: ''As some of you may know, I am part-English and part-Irish. And when my Kerry ancestors first came over to Massachusetts from the old country to find work in the New World, it was my English ancestors who refused to hire them.''
The four-page draft, which the Globe has obtained, is untitled and undated but refers to civil rights-related events of 1984, his final year as lieutenant governor.
After the Globe's inquiry, Benander said she spoke late yesterday to both Kerry and Jonathan Winer, the former aide who penned the remarks. They recalled the draft, but ''neither ever remember it being used,'' she said.
''This was a draft speech with a draft joke,'' Benander said. ''And it's not a funny joke,'' she said.
Even Winer, who was both chief speechwriter and legal counsel in the lieutenant governor's office, thought his boss was part Irish, Benander said. ''It was a common misperception,'' she said
Kerry has contributed to confusion over his heritage in his 33 years of courting Massachusetts voters. For example, in 1982, at the state Democratic convention in Springfield, his campaign gave his convention floor workers emerald-green T-shirts and hats featuring the logo ''Up Kerry'' - a takeoff on the rallying cry for the first president of the Republic of Ireland, Eamon de Valera, whose supporters cried, ''Up de Valera!''
Benander said that the paraphernalia was part of a strategy to appeal to a certain bloc of voters, not to lead people to believe he is Irish-American. Massachusetts is a heavily Irish state, and Irish politicians have long dominated the Democratic Party here.
''At this rate, the next time Kerry is spotted at a Celtics game or drinking a Guinness we are going to have to make a PA announcement that this is not a political rally,'' Benander said.
Many political writers in Massachusetts and in national publications have perpetuated the widespread assumption that Kerry is part Irish.
The Globe made references to his Irish ancestry on eight occasions since 1984, often listing him among the contingent of Irish-American political figures who dominate Massachusetts Democratic politics. Among the most recent was during his tough reelection battle in 1996, when a detailed Globe profile referred to Kerry's father as having hailed ''from an upper-class Boston family of Irish and Scottish ancestry.''
In fact, according to the Globe article last month about his family roots, Richard Kerry's father was an immigrant of Jewish heritage from Austria, who converted to Catholicism and changed his name from Kohn to Kerry. Frederick Kerry committed suicide in Boston in 1921.
Kerry said he had always tried to correct any misstatements in the news media that described him as Irish or part-Irish when he became aware of them. But none of the Globe's references were ever corrected, including the 1996 report. The reporter who wrote the 1996 story said recently that he saw Kerry several times right after the story appeared and the senator made no mention of the mistake.
Kerry's campaign has pointed to a 1993 interview with television host John McLaughlin, to buttress the assertion that the senator has been clear about lacking Irish ancestry. However, even those remarks are not precise. When McLaughlin asked Kerry if he has Irish ancestry, the senator responded, ''No. I'm a mixture.'' McLaughlin then asked, ''Well, your father's Irish. Right?'' and Kerry answered ''No. My father came from Austria.'' But when McLaughlin pressed him, saying ''Does your father have some Irish in him?'' Kerry answered: ''I don't know the answer to that. We're looking and I don't know.''
Benander said Kerry had not always been diligent about correcting mistakes in articles about him, but has more recently increased his vigilance.
''Over the years there have been many mistakes published about John Kerry and his record,'' Benander said. ''We have certainly learned our lesson and now seek corrections for each and every error.'' |
