Vice President Joe Biden got another chance to celebrate St. Patrick's Day due to a visit from the Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny, and he brought a trio of MSNBC personalities into the party.
"We should do this every year; celebrate St. Patrick's Day twice," Biden said, according to the pool report at a breakfast this morning with Kenny and an array of American political officials of Irish heritage. Along with members of the Kennedy family and Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, Biden hosted "MSNBC journalists Lawrence O'Donnell, Chris Matthews and Mike Barnicle," the pooler noted.
Kenny also encouraged Biden in his reelection campaigning. "If you want to draw inspiration, just put your hand on this letter," Kenny said, referring to a copy of a letter written by Wolfe Tone, an 18th century Irish revolutionary. "He was a Protestant who founded the United Irishmen. He had nothing to gain, but he sought to relieve the oppression of the Catholics. He gave his life for the principles of civil rights," Kenny explained.
The pooler noted that breakfast prayer ended with a traditional toast. "After the obligatory prayer involving St. Patrick and the Holy Trinity," the pooler observed, "Msgr O'Keefe offered what he called an Irish Catholic toast: 'May you be in heaven a half hour before the devil knows you're dead.'"
