Shouldn’t Merkel file sexual harassement charges against Bush? The way she reacts it certainly was unwanted touching. There have been plenty of court cases over less.
Sure, sure. Bush supporters will only say he was joking around. Being friendly. But this is a head of state, in public. Nothing shows respect to other countries and their leaders like groping. Bush has got to have a screw lose somewhere to pull this kind of bullshit.
Here’s one writer’s take:
Every woman will recognize the guy who sidles up and starts “casually” giving you a backrub without even looking at you, because he wants to preserve deniability in case you freak out. Like any practiced groper, Bush stares right past Merkel as she recoils from his touch.
The play fails, but he just moves on, eyes averted, like it’s her problem. (“Oh my God, there’s a hysterical woman displaying inappropriate behavior! I’ll just pretend I don’t notice her egregious gaffe.”)
Yes, our president, the drive-by harasser.
And the Idealistic Pragmatist has a discussion on the cultural implications:
Far from showing his great “love” for the chancellor, what this event really illustrates is Bush’s appalling insensitivity to the fact that not everybody else’s culture is just like his own. In Germany, this will be perceived not as a joke, but as a man showing a woman her place. Don’t look so shocked, Mr. President–there are actually places in the world where you don’t get to massage the shoulders of a woman (and a fellow world leader) whom you barely know. After six long years of hobnobbing with the international elite, I’d think you might have figured that out.
DU Exclusive: The real reason this happened is because the Bush pilot voted against Merkel and decided this was his chance to get back at her for winning. Remember, you read that here, first!
first the guy is cussing into an open mike, with his mouth full of food – a disgusting display, not so much for the profanity as for the cretinish gobbling and talking – and now he is fondling the Chancellor of Germany.
is he back on the bottle or the toot or something?
Hmmmm, interesting.
I personally believe that Bush is a lout, a boor, an ex-fratboy whose only talent is to piss away other people’s assets. Everything of value he ever had, from his first oil company to the United States of America, was given to him. (And just like everything else of value he has owned, Bush is pissing this country away, too.)
It isn’t that he’s stupid, he just doesn’t care enough about facts to learn any.
There is open mike cussing, talking with your mouthful, but i highly doubt that he gives random backrubs to chancellors. I dont think that was him, thats an obvious spoof.
It just strikes me as one of those overly-familiar gestures that Bush probably regretted as soon as he saw her reaction. For all his family’s wealth and connections, there are people from far lower rungs in our society who have a greater sense of propriety for official behavior, but I don’t see this little gesture as having any negative reflection on Bush’s character. There are plenty of other things for that.
Comedian Lewis Black had a good line recently, when viewing video footage of Bush with the Japanese Prime Minister visiting Graceland. Koizumi actually started singing one of Presley’s songs, and Lewis Black said “Here’s something I’ve never said before — doesn’t Bush look dignified!” Maybe the video shows a meeting where it was Bush’s turn to make everyone else look dignified. On the bright side, he didn’t do it by singing 😉
Geez…
He was right there and didn’t even grab her tits.
What kind of example is he setting for his predecessor, Billy Bob Clinton?
I wonder if Hillary will forgive, or lambast somebody from the other ‘party’
… and, why the hell are political organizations called ‘parties’ ?? Are they ‘FUN’??
When I first saw the blurry pics of this I swore it was Harriet Meyers and still wonder if it wasn;t a Bush knee-jerk action. I mean the same frumpy outfit and look. Whatever the case, this is going to be something he regrets.
Bush reminds me of the relative we all have who ruins every holiday but we still have to invite.
You probably have one in your family.
It’s the annonying relative who, while spitting pieces of dinner rolls, says stuff like, “See? It’s ironic! All the balcks have to do is get jobs and racism would go away just like that! It’s simple, see! Just like Rush was saying the other day…”
A trivial point, but she’s not the head of state, she’s the leader of the government.
The head of state in Germany is their President, currently Horst Köhler.
In the same way, Tony Blair is not the head of state of the UK, but merely the leader of the government. The UK’s head of state is Queen Elizabeth II.
It actually is part of a pretty big cultural difference into how you view your political leaders.
I personally (along with many other Europeans) like the idea of having the head of state separate from the leader of the government, since you then have one person who symbolically represents the country, and who you therefore show deference to, and one politician who leads the government, who you treat according to theirs and your politics.
The whole idea of Democrats in the US having to refer to Bush as “Mr President” and treat him with a degree of deference due to his position leaves me a bit cold.
Meanwhile the Democratic Party is led by the loser who lost to the loser who lost to this loser.
Who cares about the Democrats?
Why does the Right always point to something worse to justify their position? Sure, the Democrats are a bunch of idiots who couldn’t find their ass with both hands, but they haven’t been in control of any facet of government for FIVE YEARS.
Bush is President, not any Democrat. Let’s comment on who is on the office and what they are doing, not pointing at imaginary monsters. The one we have in the Oval Office is monster enough.
If you were a lousy lover, would you justify it by reminding your wife her ex-boyfriend was worse?
NO no no…Think about this ! I believe there was a movie on the same thing. Guy in charge gets close to whomever so he can plant a secret wiretap on him/her. I think thats just what happened.
The world is on the edge of a major war. The dollar and stock market is crashing. The Multinationals are giving away all western technology and manufacturing capability to China, India as fast as they can and you clowns are talking about this teenage bullshit. If any of you have been to Germany you would see their attitude about sex is very different and much more mature than our own in the US. Last time there I turned on TV and saw on the public station nude skiing!! How about growing up and start worrying about real issues that this conference should be dealing with now but we never hear anything about because of this childish banter about table manners and greetings (which was inappropriate- get over it)
There is a massive difference between being casual about sex and letting some dolt paw you in a public place at a formal function.
If this were Clinton they’d have already formed a congressional comittee to investigate the incident and you people would be moaning all around how sick Clinton is.
It is obvious that Bush is more of an embarrassment to this country than ever. He can’t even chew food with his mouth closed, and has demonstrated he doesn’t respect women. Why didn’t he pull that crap on Putin?
On the other hand, he seems to have learned something on this trip – “China is big! And so is Russia!”.
So it’s not a total loss.
Just because Bush is getting some hot German action is no reason to get jealous, guys.
Didn’t you watch Sprockets on SNL? That’s as warm as Germans get.
Oh god, give me a break! That wasn’t remotely sensual. He could as easily have been lobbing a water balloon at his kid sister.
There’s more. He did something like this to Vladimir Putin years back, strangling him. Someone should tell him not to treat foreign gatherings as frat parties.
> If this were Clinton
Well, there’s plenty of evidence that Clinton can’t handle himself around women. Do you really think all of the accusers were lying? If Monica hadn’t kept her blue dress, people would be saying that she was lying too.
I watched Bush’s Animal House behavour and was shocked (and it takes a lot to shock me). Did anyone see the German newsclip with Bush making the comments about the pig dinner? That was the first indication of his hyper-boorish manner.
If I was part of the Republican “power brokers” set, I’d be setting Bush up to be the fall-guy right now. I wonder if what Gonzales said about Bush blocking the ethics inquiry is part of that.
smartalix –
The reason I keep bringing up the Democrats is that, given that they are currently the only other viable party at the national level, they are the only ones who can currently offer a viable alternative to Bush. And they have failed miserably.
It seems to me that the recent ‘open mic’ and ‘inappropriate touching’ incidents are fairly MINOR and may be getting a lot of attention to draw us away from his total incompetence.
Just look at all the attention these relatively insignificant incidents are getting. Now open your eyes.
#11
smartalix – lol!
Now watch the neocons start squirming “but Clinton this, but Hilary that.”. Talk about liberals whining, neocons whine like a bad water pump in a gremlin!
Bad water pump in a Gremlin?? LOL
This just goes to prove something we already know … our president is a boob.
Although I don’t like Bush & his public stunts always make me laugh,
I think that the reaction we see on the face of the chancelor reflects surprise more than angriness…
To me it looks more like after a long afternoon meeting, things are getting wrapped up, Bush stands up, comes to the back of the chancelor and grabs her shoulders playfully, then runs away.
I see a lot of people who are getting used to Bush’s PR mistakes but IMO there is no reason to call for sexual harrassment on such a bad quality video. I am sure if the video quality was better, that when she looks for Bush on her left (after he grabbed her shoulders) we would see a smile on her face.
John,
I would have wrote “Yugo”, but I’m in a good mood.
He doesn’t have a clue.
Giving a shoulder rub is a grope? Seriously guys, you’re becoming moonbats.
#27 “Giving a shoulder rub is a grope? Seriously guys, you’re becoming moonbats.”
Yeah – and if Clinton would have done it FOX would be pounding on him for a month about how “disgraceful” he was.
The mighty neocon double standard.
Not a grope?
This wasn’t a Hee-Haw convention, this was a meeting of world leaders