cross-posted at Huffington Post
President Bush took time out from the G-8 Summit to grope German Chancellor
Angela Merkel. I'm not kidding. It boggles the mind. (Update: John at C&L has the video up.)
Via Mash (by the way, great get!), we get photos via a friend of his in Germany. Mash debuted his guest post on North
Korea this past Sunday, which will appear every Sunday (focusing on world foreign policy issues). He forwarded links to these pictures.
This is why Iraq and the Middle East are in flames, and we have no credibility around the world. We have a prepubescent president
in charge. It is an outrage.
 |
| KDinDC offers the German translation, from the comment section: Chancellor Angela Merkel is speaking with Italy's Prime Minister Romano Prodi — then George W. Bush comes into the hall… |
 |
| … Merkel converses with her neighbor at the table, does not notice how Bush is approaching from the rear … |
 |
| … suddenly the US president lays both hands on Merkel's shoulders … |
 |
| … begins his Texan one-second massage … |
 |
| … the chancellor jerks, startled, raises her hands high, does not know who has grabbed her from behind … |
 |
| … and with an air of innocence the president after the joke navigates to his place at the conference table. Merkel takes the surprising love attack with humor, smiles. |
Mash just sent me the link below from the LA Times, who offers no pictures and a false description. Does Merkel look like she smiled? Take another look above. Baby, that's no smile.
… Entering the meeting room, as relayed by a Russian television camera, Bush headed directly behind the chancellor, reached out and, placing both hands on the collar of her gold jacket, gave her a short massage just below the neck. She smiled. …
Russia's Time to Shine on World Stage
Huge mansions and ceremonious greetings at a palace add sparkle to the G-8 summit.
UPDATE: George W. Bush's sexual harassment of the Chancellor
Merkle has pushed the wingnuts over the edge. Get a load of one of the comments
I pulled out below. Another wingnut liar on the loose. Not only that, but he
evidently believes women are men's property no matter the circumstances. Hodari2004
sets him straight. Lindsay nails the woman's point of view dead on.
Bill Clinton raped at least 2 women, exposed himself to another, used a White
House intern for sex, and you guys are worried about President Bush putting
his hands on Merkel's shoulders?Bush is a Texan. Texans hug one another, kiss one another, place their hands
on other's shoulders, and give hand squeezes all the time. You libs are always
talking about understanding the culture of others and it's time for you to start
understanding Texas culture. We're not cold and frigid like you Yankees are.Sheesh, you need to get a life.
——————————————————————————–
It's easy I suppose to dismiss the massage, “Hey, it's no big deal!”
But I'm looking at this man's behavior through the frame of the present world
geo-political climate. With Iraq, Afghanistan and the Middle East in chaos;
North Korea test firing long range missles; Iran developing nuclear capabilities;
people dying as a result of his policies, bombs exploding in Lebanon and northern
Israel… you would think the President of the United States of America would be in a
more serious mindset, not playing grab-ass (figuratively speaking) with the
only female leader in the room and talking s— with bread crumbs flying out
of his mouth! THE WORLD will see these photos and it will only confirm for many that this
guy is not and was never up for the gravity of this job. Merkel is gracious
enough to play it off once she sees who it is that has laid his hands on her,
but make no mistake, that is a grimace if I ever saw one. It was f—ing inappropiate
and a reflection of George the Lesser's poor character and judgement.
UPDATE II: The trackback system of Haloscan can be interesting at times. A wingnut commenter and I got into a discussion about the Middle East recently on this blog. Now he's all misty-eyed because President Bush has been caught sexually harassing German Chancellor Merkel, and some of us don't like it. He's all poor Georgie and is weeping that we “bash GWB.” Why is it that conservatives can't take issues that personally affect women seriously? It's like an affront to their manhood, which was proven after Bush's actions against Merkel turned her to disgust. No privacy, no respect, not even as the German Chancellor, because I can touch whomever I want. This is the response from conservatives in the modern era. No respect for women at all. When the leader of the Free World believes he can manhandle the German Chancellor at will there's a problem with the man. It's an affront to every woman and, frankly, most men; that is unless you're a boorish partisan who is just too plain ignorant to understand women deserve respect, which means HANDS OFF, unless you're invited. That it was the German Chancellor that Bush was fondling makes it even worse.
UPDATE III: This update is dedicated to the wingnuts who are desperately trying to make excuses for our Groper in Chief. Unfortunately, Bush has no boundaries and believes he can do anything he wants. David Lettermen reminds us of this fact, compliments of John @ Crooks & Liars, who is always looking out for the ladies.
UPDATE IV: Wolcott weighs in.
Comments are closed.