DOES BILL CLINTON HATE THE IRISH? OR DOES HE JUST THINK THAT ALL IRISH ARE DRUNKS? THIS IS THE SECOND STUPID CRACK HE HAS MADE REGARDING THE IRISH. WHAT WOULD FREUD SAY?

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BILL IN SORRY STATE OVER IRISH BAR CRACK

By MARILYN RAUBER

WASHINGTON -- President Clinton put his foot in his mouth again yesterday, urging the Irish to "belly up to the bar" in the peace process -- just months after comparing them to drunks.

With the plans for peace in shambles -- and Britain threatening to retake control of Northern Ireland -- Clinton told reporters:

"I just hope everyone will belly up to the bar and do their part."

The White House was forced to apologize for Clinton's choice of words last fall -- when he seemed to play off negative Irish stereotypes by claiming the two sides were like "a couple of drunks walking out of the bar for the last time."

White House aides tried to downplay Clinton's latest faux pas.

"Certainly the president does not intend to offend anyone," said White House spokesman Mike Hammer.

"Everybody understands the message the president was trying to get across -- it's crunch time," Hammer said, adding that no one had complained about Clinton's latest metaphor.

A spokesman for the Irish Embassy joked that Clinton must have been referring to the "judicial" bar, not the booze-serving kind.

"We just presume that's a quaint American expression used in its broadest metaphorical sense," said embassy spokesman Adrian O'Neill, who praised Clinton for "being extraordinarily helpful in trying to ... get us over this hump."

Pro-Irish Rep. Pete King (R-L.I.) credited Clinton for keeping negotiations "alive" this week, and said: "I'm not going to criticize him for that [remark] -- he is in the center of trying to get this resolved."

Clinton told reporters he was "trying to keep it [the talks] going ... I have some hope that we may find a way through this."

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