THE SCRAPBOOK can think of several reasons why a person might want to march in New York's St. Patrick's Day parade. But bringing peace to Northern Ireland isn't one of them. Not unless you're Hillary Clinton, running a tin-eared campaign for Senate in New York. "I have worked very hard over the last six years or so in every way I could to further the peace process in Northern Ireland," Mrs. Clinton explained to angry gay activists last week. "I want to continue to lend my support to it, and I think [that] marching in the parade here is one way of demonstrating that." Yeah, right.
Gay activists are miffed because ever since the Irish Lesbian and Gay Organization failed to force its way into the parade a decade ago, Democratic pols, with a handful of exceptions, have boycotted the event. Seemingly unaware of this history, Mrs. Clinton happily announced in December that she would be marching. Now she's looking for a high-minded sounding reason to explain the insult to one of her constituencies without insulting another. So she apparently decided the only way out was to insult everyone's intelligence.