St. Patrick the Politician
Shock of shocks, the Harrisburg St. Patrick's Day parade on Saturday is turning into a political battleground for supporters of Democratic challengers Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, and apparently of presumptive Republican nominee John McCain as well. And the April 22 Pennsylvania primary is still six weeks away.
Coordinators for both the Democrats are urging any of their camp who want to participate to march in the parade, which moves down Second Street in Pennsylvania's capital city beginning at 2 p.m. Here's what former PHEAA general counsel Loretta Barbee-Dare, one of the local coordinators for Obama posted on the Obama campaign website:
"Since the Clinton campaign has bought their way into the parade, with McCain not far behind, I have opened up this group to include ANYBODY WHO WANTS TO MARCH. The 45-person limit, as well as the gloves, are off."
Hoo wah!
Barbee-Dare, who is also on the ballot as an Obama delegate from the 17th Congressional District that includes Harrisburg, did not respond to a request from By the River to explain that part about the Clinton and McCain campaigns buying their way into the parade.
Local Clinton campaign coordinator Jan Tamanini put out a call on the Clinton campaign website for Hillary's supporters, "as many as possible," to join the parade Saturday.
In the old days of the St. Patrick's Day parade, we could have expected the supporters of Obama and the supporters of Clinton to engage in a drunken street brawl. But chances are the confrontation will be limited to catcalls, such as "Bush war enabler" from the Obama side, and "inexperienced kid" from the Clinton side.
The Obama folks will also be doing voter registration Saturday from noon to 1 p.m. at the intersection of 13th and Derry streets in Harrisburg's Allison Hill neighborhood. Kudos to them. That's the heart of the black and Hispanic community in Harrisburg, and they hopefully will sign up a lot of new voters.