@flickr.com
Since the president of the United States has used the “sh*t” word before, I am not going to sugarcoat the headline at The Irish Times this morning.
It boldly proclaims “How Mike Pence shat on the new carpet in Ireland’s spare room.”
Now, I have never tried to conjugate the verb “to sh*t,” but I have to trust that Irish reporter Miriam Lord knows.
That is exactly how Lord describes Pence’s full-throated support of Boris Johnson and of a hurried, no-deal Brexit while Pence was a guest in Ireland, a country that has serious concerns about how the “swift divorce” between the UK and the European Union could force the return of a hard border with Northern Ireland with dire consequences.
Speaking in the Emerald Isle, Pence made his support for Brexit crystal clear, “channeling His Master’s Voice”:
As the deadline for Brexit approaches, we urge Ireland and the European Union, as well, to negotiate in good faith with Prime Minister Johnson, and work to reach an agreement that respects the United Kingdom’s sovereignty and minimizes the disruption to commerce.
This, after — according to Lord — “The hospitable hosts buttered up their important guest and made a big fuss of his family and hoped he would say nice things about them to the important people he would meet after his visit to Ireland.”
And after Pence said so many nice things about Ireland, after he told them them how much Trump appreciates the Irish, after telling them “they were wonderful and that he loved them” and even saying “a special prayer for everyone.” After all this, Pence “turned around and kicked them where it hurts,” Lord writes.
And here is where the uncommon conjugation comes in.
“It came as a shock,” Lord writes, “Like pulling out all the stops for a much-anticipated visitor to your home and thinking it has been a great success until somebody discovers he shat on the new carpet in the spare room, the one you bought specially for him.”
Read more interesting details about Pence’s political brouhaha in the Emerald Isle here.
But that wasn’t the only controversy surrounding Pence’s visit to the Emerald Isle, a visit meant to “show off his ancestry and bolster a key US ally.”
Pence and his entourage picked a Trump five-star golf resort in Doonbeg, 180 miles from Dublin, where his meetings were taking place, for his two-night sojourn.
When asked about such a for-Trump-financially-advantageous choice, among the many reasons given, the following sticks out a like a sore, infected thumb, “The president had ‘suggested’ it.” In Ireland that would be called malarkey.
Irish Eyes are definitely not smiling today.
