Sebelius's great-grandmother

During the summer, as the veep stakes were heating up, the Wall Street Journal named a Democratic shortlist of seven. Sen. Hillary Clinton was one, and Evan Bayh, who was a long-time favorite to get the nod, was another. The other five were Catholic, the WSJ pointed out. They were: Senators Jack Reed, Chris Dodd and Joe Biden, and Governors Kathleen Sebelius and Tim Kaine. The Irish Echo added that the five were all Irish-American.

A week or so later, I wrote a piece making the case for Kansas’ Sebelius, who is the daughter of former Ohio Governor Jack Gilligan. Just before the DNC met, of course, one of the short-listed “Irish” was picked. At the convention itself, one of these pols managed to link their family history to actual immigrants. Here is the second paragraph of Governor Sebelius's keynote speech at the Pepsi center.

“I'm a descendent of Irish immigrants. My great-grandmother worked as a maid in the home of William Howard Taft, before he became president. Decades later, the grandson of the president and my father, the grandson of the maid, served back-to-back to represent the same district in Congress. Now, that is the American dream. It's my story, and it's the story of millions of others. Last night we heard Barack Obama's story -- how the son of a single mother from Kansas, through hard work and perseverance, has come within reach of the White House. Barack Obama was raised by a family of pragmatic, hard-working Kansans who believe in faith, in family and in community.”