By Zeus, beware of Greeks bearing no gifts at all. Ireland and Greece are at opposite corners of the European continent but they are equally cornered right now in terms of debt and the inability to repay it without massive outside help.
But if Ireland is in a bad state Greece is looking like a complete shambles and the scary thing is that it could get worse.
If Greece defaults it could be the start of a domino effect that could topple the euro and hobble the political and economic integration of the EU for years to come.
It still seems like a stretch at this point, but if Greece bails from the eurozone it could signal similar moves by other hard pressed eurozone countries like Italy, which, according to reports, might end up being bailed (bought) by the Chinese.
And where would all this leave the old sod? Swinging in the Atlantic winds, contemplating a return to a currency confined in recent years to sock drawers, the punt.
KENNEDY COMEBACK
Just when you thought the Kennedys were fading from Massachusetts politics, there's new speculation brewing about a Camelot comeback. This one involves Joe Kennedy - maybe even two Joe Kennedys.
Thus reported the Boston Herald recently and in reference to Joe Kennedy II, the former congressman, and Joe Kennedy III, his son. The latter, according to the Herald, "is raising the most ruckus among Democrats with his pending move from the Cape and Islands District Attorney's Office to a spot in the Middlesex prosecutor's office, a launching pad for a number of Bay State politicians."
Joe III has been the subject of previous speculation but has held back from jumping into the political pit but, again according to the Herald, "it's no secret that Kennedy III has political ambitions."
As for Dad? The daily reckons that Kennedy Sr. "would be the Democrats' perfect anti-Deval successor in 2014," a reference to incumbent governor Deval Patrick who is low key in his manner as opposed to Kennedy, who, as readers are aware, once argued with a gun-toting British soldier in Northern Ireland and told him in no uncertain terms to be on his way back to blighty. Governor Kennedy. Sounds like a natural fit in Massachusetts.
NO COMEBACK
Meanwhile, former New York governor George Pataki is not now planning to jump into the already crowded field of candidates seeking the Republican Party presidential nomination for 2012.
Pataki, a three-term governor who is Irish on his mother's side of the family with roots in Louth, was expected to make an announcement in Iowa recently but apparently decided at the last minute against such a move. He now says that he will not be seeking the GOP nomination in 2012.
