Leo Varadkar’s recurring case of foot-in-mouth disease

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has done it again.

The country’s leader has put his foot in it while on international duty with another of his by now infamous ill-advised remarks.

This time he brought those friends of Ireland, the Clintons, Hilary and Bill, into the crossfire with his bizarre reference to Monica Lewinsky in an off-the-cuff attempted joke at a reception for young Washington interns - Leo used to be one himself.

Luckily the ex-President, Bill, and former Secretary of State, Hilary, were not present at the gig, although Leo had been at a function with the Clinton posse just hours earlier.

Leo can remind people of The Girl with the Curl poem from Henry Wadsworth at times.

That’s the one that goes, ‘when she was good, she was very, very good, but when she was bad, she was horrible.’

Our Taoiseach can be very, very good on the international stage and especially during an emergency at home.

He can come across as a true statesman, measured, calm, authoritative and a little forceful the odd time, which is no harm.

Think back no further than the start of the pandemic when the Taoiseach calmed the nation with some of those State of the Nation-style addresses from the steps of Government Buildings.

Leo was also top of his game in Europe during the original Brexit deal negotiations.

There was one occasion in February 2019 during another hectic EU Council Summit meeting in Brussels when it appeared that a breakthrough had been reached.

The assembled press were herded into the large press room beside the Consilium building in the Belgian capital where they were expected to be addressed by the ‘big two’ in the EU at the time, EU Council President, Donald Tusk, and EU Commission chief, Jean Claude Juncker.

But then the screens announced that ‘Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar’ would also be taking to the stage.

Leo more than held his own that day, it’s safe to say he was right at home on the big stage that evening.

Now, unfortunately, we have to contrast that with the occasions where he really lets himself down, descending to schoolboy levels of idiocy with some of the things he says.

When he puts his foot in his mouth, he really sticks it right back so far it must be kicking his tonsils.

So, to paraphrase Wandsworth, when he is bad he is absolutely embarrassing.

The latest faux (foot?) pas before the weekend saw Leo try a joke again.

Addressing Washington interns at a reception he is reported to have said in jest: "some parents would have had cause for concern about what would happen to interns in Washington."

A spokesman for the Taoiseach sent out an apology fairly promptly, but, too late, it was on every Irish news website already.

We don’t need to rehash the Monica Lewinsky scandal here to make one realise this was a royal cock-up of a thing to say to that particular crowd.

The Clintons won’t raise this when they’re here next month, but you can be sure they’ve been briefed about his apparent ‘joke’ at their expense.

Washington was the scene again a few years ago when a comment got him in hot water.

Speaking at the traditional Speaker of the House (Nancy Pelosi that day) lunch in Capitol Hill in March 2018, Mr Varadkar as Taoiseach told the lunch guests about receiving a call from ‘The Donald’ about wind farm planning issues near his golf club in Doonbeg, Co Clare.

The Taoiseach said he “had endeavoured to do” what he could for the then billionaire businessman, before acknowledging nothing came of his supposed intervention anyway.

Again, a quick apology was cobbled together and we moved on.

Then there was his cringe Hugh Grant moment in Downing Street.

Leo was in Downing Street for the first time as Taoiseach in June 2017, meeting British Prime Minister, Theresa May.

Afterwards he thought it would be funny to tell reporters of his experience in this way: “I was reminded of that famous scene in Love Actually where Hugh Grant does his dance down the stairs.”

Let’s call a spade a spade, Leo Varadkar is not a funny guy, he should stick to the script.

Otherwise he risks choking on his foot sometime soon.

Dry house in Leinster House

Leinster House regulars were not able to get a pint in the Dáil bar on Paddy’s Day while the rest of the country knocked back record amounts of booze on our national day.

The Dáil bar is possibly the country’s most famous bar, but with the parliament not sitting, all of the country’s junior and senior ministers away on St Patrick’s Day junkets and it being a bank holiday, the famous boozer was shut.

A Dáil insider who frequents the Dáil bar on a regular basis told the Irish Mirror: “Isn’t it ironic that you could get a pint anywhere else in the country on our national day and you can’t get a sup in our national parliament.

“And of course this is the place where you could get a pint at all hours on any day back in the day when I was in my prime drinking days.”

The Government of rugby

Our ministers were all over the world at the weekend, making our country proud and representing us, the Irish people, at the various junkets organised in our country’s honour everywhere from Boston to Brisbane.

But no matter where they were, our politicians had one thing in common this year, they were united as a Coalition ever has been, they all had to get somewhere to watch the rugby.

The rugby being the historic Grand Slam decider between Ireland and England at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin on Saturday.

The Coalition was united with the Fine Gaelers a given to eek out a venue no matter what time of day or night where they were.

The Greens have their rugby fans too, none more so than leader Eamon Ryan, who revealed recently his boyhood dream was to play in the Leinster home ground in the RDS.

And spare a thought for the Fianna Fáil minister who revealed to the Mirror before he left to represent us last week that he hoped a famous politician in the city he was visiting didn’t die while he was there or he might have to deputise for the Government at a funeral and miss the big match.

Quote of the Week

"Some parents would have had cause for concern about what would happen to interns in Washington.” Taoiseach Leo Varadkar attempts to make a joke about his time as a young intern in Washington around the same time as the Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky scandal.

ENDS