Only Nixon Could Go to Ireland

Timothy Naftali's been doing the Lord's work since he was sent by the National Archives to wrest control of the Nixon Library from the Nixonphiles, and while the anti-semitism revealed in the latest tapes won't surprise anyone this seems like a very strange thing to say about Irish people:

In a conversation Feb. 13, 1973, with Charles W. Colson, a senior adviser who had just told Nixon that he had always had "a little prejudice," Nixon said he was not prejudiced but continued: "I've just recognized that, you know, all people have certain traits."

"The Jews have certain traits," he said. "The Irish have certain — for example, the Irish can't drink. What you always have to remember with the Irish is they get mean. Virtually every Irish I've known gets mean when he drinks. Particularly the real Irish."

Drunk Irish people are fun! Everyone knows that. Meanwhile note that Irish affection for booze is not just a lazy stereotype, the people of Ireland do in fact have the world's second-highest per capital alcohol consumption after Luxembourg, a tiny oft-ignored outlier in many ranking lists.