The Diplomat

It's getting so that I have to be careful drinking while reading the news, lest I spew water or coffee all over my computer. I'm unclear if that was the intended effect of the way Reuters correspondent Steve Holland wrote this piece or not.

It's an article about the way George Bush (newly revealed as Diplomat Bush, instead of "Yer with us or agin us" Bush) gets along with the other leaders at the G8 summit. About Italy's Prime Minister Romano Prodi he writes:

One of the last times Bush saw Prodi was in 2004 at a G8 summit in Sea Island, Georgia, when the Italian was president of the European Commission, and Bush blew past him on his mountain bike as Prodi strolled on the beach.

"I made some kind of noise, or something startled him out of his walking shoes, you know," Bush said. "My point is, there he was. He was a guy who I felt comfortable enough roaring by on a mountain bike, three Secret Service agents spewing up sand."

He added: "I feel comfortable talking to him. He may not agree with me. But the fundamental question I think you're searching for is, can you still have a good relationship even though you disagree on issues? And the answer is, yes."

Although he is often portrayed as a bit of a bull in a china shop, White House spokesman Tony Snow credited Bush with "a chess player's ability to think several moves ahead" in his dealings with foreign leaders.

"He tries to figure out what incentives are going to appeal to people to inspire them in a way that we think is helpful and right. It's a real gift and it's something you don't see unless you are on the inside," Snow said.

Myself, I'm having trouble understanding the inspirational value of scaring someone walking on a beach and spewing sand on them, but maybe I'm not the kind of "several moves ahead" chess player that our President is.

Bush. Chess. Bwah-ha-ha-ha-ha.

It's a gift. A real gift. I'm sure.

(Did you notice that Bush's description was all about how comfortable he felt with Prodi, not about how Prodi might feel about him? Prodi's the kind of guy Bush feels comfortable with spewing sand on? What's does that mean? Bush sees him as a frat pledge? I don't get it. Whatever, it's clear Bush was much more comfortable with that nice ( and newly-indicted) Silvio Berlusconi fella. But heh, he's a diplomat.)