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At international summit,
Bush gropes German Chancellor

by Helen & Harry Highwater, Unknown News

July 19, 2006

At the G-8 Conference in St. Petersburg, President George W Bush approached German Chancellor Angela Merkel from behind, and began rubbing her shoulders. It is not difficult to read Merkel's facial expressions, as she squirmed and shook until the American President removed his hands.

Most American newspapers and news networks didn't think it was newsworthy until the next day, when "the news" was that photos of the incident were "burning up the blogosphere," as the Boston Globe reported. "It's not exactly 'Presidents Gone Wild', joked the San Francisco Chronicle. "The tabloids have pounced, and so have comedians like Jon Stewart," ABC News announced in the network's first mention of the incident, more than 24 hours after it happened.

Without any exceptions we could find, it was reported in American media as wacky, funny, or just good-natured goofing around from the President. Maureen Dowd of The New York Times provided the best mainstream coverage, putting Bush's bizarre behavior in broader context with other Bush bevahior oddities, but even Dowd seemed to see it as just a sign of the President's immaturity.

We emphatically disagree. Such behavior is not merely immature and, of course, not "Presidential," it is — by any normal standard — not tolerated.

If an office worker or a bricklayer or virtually any man in virtually any ordinary job grabbed a female co-worker and started massaging her shoulders without warning or permission, the consequences would depend on the woman's response. She might laugh it off, sure — but if she complained, most employers would scold or reprimand Bush — and rightly so. In some workplaces he would be fired, without any second chances.

Bush's behavior here is inappropriate to the edge of sexual harassment, and not at all how civilized men behave in a work situation with women they barely know. The American media presents it as "frat boy" antics, but we believe it's more serious than that, especially when considered in light of other odd moments in Bush's peculiar Presidency.

George W Bush does not know the boundaries of acceptable social behavior, or does not think such boundaries apply to him. And there's a word for that: psychopathy.

Animal House at G-8 Summit

by Maureen Dowd, The New York Times

July 19, 2006

Reporters who covered W.'s 2000 campaign often wondered whether the Bush scion would give up acting the fool if he got to be the king.

Would he stop playing peekaboo with his pre-meal moist towels during airplane interviews? Would he quit scrunching up his face and wiggling his eyebrows at memorial services? Would he replace levity and inanity with gravity?

German Chancellor Angela Merkel speaks with Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi.

American President George Bush approaches from behind, and puts his hands on her shoulders.

President Bush begins mas-
saging Chancellor Merkel's shoulders with his fingers.

Chancellor Merkel begins lifting her shoulders to escape President Bush's grasp.

Grimacing, Chancellor Merkel lifts her arms, makes both hands into fists. President Bush releases her.

President Bush walks away with a blank look but no apology. Chancellor Merkel lowers her fists.

"In many regards, the Bush I knew did not seem to be built for what lay ahead," wrote Frank Bruni, the Times writer who covered W.'s ascent, in his book "Ambling Into History." "The Bush I knew was part scamp and part bumbler, a timeless fraternity boy and heedless cutup, a weekday gym rat and weekend napster, an adult with an inner child that often brimmed to the surface or burst through."

The open-microphone incident at the G-8 lunch in St. Petersburg on Monday illustrated once more that W. never made any effort to adapt. The president has enshrined his immaturity and insularity, turning every environment he inhabits — no matter how decorous or serious — into a comfortable frat house.

No matter what the trappings or the ceremonies require of the leader of the free world, he brings the same Delta Kappa Epsilon bearing and cadences, the same insouciance and smart-alecky attitude, the same simplistic approach — swearing, swaggering, talking to Tony Blair with his mouth full of buttered roll, and giving a startled Angela Merkel an impromptu shoulder rub. He can make even a global summit meeting seem like a kegger.

Catching W. off-guard, the really weird thing is his sense of victimization. He's strangely resentful about the actual core of his job. Even after the debacles of Iraq and Katrina, he continues to treat the presidency as a colossal interference with his desire to mountain bike and clear brush.

In snippets of overheard conversation, Mr. Bush says he has not bothered to prepare any closing remarks and grouses about having to listen to other world leaders talk too long. What did he think being president was about?

The world may be blowing up, and the president may have a rare opportunity to jaw-jaw about bang-bang with his peers, but that pales in comparison with his burning desire to return to his feather pillow and gym back at the White House.

"Gotta go home," he tells the guy next to him. "Got something to do tonight. Go to the airport, get on the airplane and go home." A White House spokesman said Mr. Bush had nothing on his schedule after he returned to Washington on Monday about 4 p.m.

When he began meandering about how big Russia was, you expected him to yell, "Yo, Condi!" and ask his secretary of state: "Hey, what's the name of that other big country that has more people than any other country in the world? It begins with a ‘C.' Dad spent some time there."

Perhaps it's that anti-patrician chip on his shoulder, his rebellion against a family that prized manners and diplomacy above all. But when bored or frustrated, W. reserves the right to be boorish — no matter if the setting is a gilded palace or a Texas gorge.

He treated Tony "As It Were" Blair like the servant in The Remains of the Day, blowing off his offer to help with the Israel-Lebanon crisis, and changing the subject from substance to fluff at one point, noting about his 60th-birthday Burberry gift: "Thanks for the sweater. Awfully thoughtful of you." Then he razzed the British prime minister, who was hovering and wheedling like an abused wife: "I know you picked it out yourself."

After doing his best to undermine the U.N. and Kofi Annan, W. talked about the secretary general like a fraternity pledge he wanted to send out for more beer or a keg of Diet Coke: "I felt like telling Kofi to get on the phone with Assad and make something happen."

His loosey-goosey confidence that everything could be fixed with a phone call — and not even a phone call made by him, and not even a phone call made to the Iranians, who have more control over Hezbollah — was striking. He seems to have no clue that his own headlong, heedless actions in the Middle East have contributed to the deepening chaos there, and to Iran's growing influence and America's diminished leverage.

Mr. Bush may resent the sophistication required of a president. But when the world is going to hell, he should stop chewing and start thinking.

As originally published

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in·sane adj.
1 : mentally dis-
ordered : exhibiting insanity

2 : used by, typical of, or intended for insane persons (an insane asylum)

3 : ABSURD (an insane scheme for making money)

—Merriam-Webster

in·san·i·ty n.
1 a : a deranged state of the mind usually occurring as a specific disorder (as schizophrenia) and usually excluding such states as mental retardation, psychoneurosis, and various character disorders

b : a mental disorder

2 : such unsoundness of mind or lack of understanding as prevents one from having the mental capacity required by law to enter into a particular relationship, status, or transaction or as removes one from criminal or civil responsibility

3 a : extreme folly or unreasonableness

b : something utterly foolish or unreasonable

—Merriam-Webster

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