Remember the Adam Clymer incident? Back when George W. Bush was running for president, he called a New York Times reporter an obscenity in what he thought was an unmiked remark to Dick Cheney. For weeks, the liberal elite press corps, notorious for its own love of profanity, was up in arms about how dastardly Bush was for using such horrible, filthy language.
Now it seems Bush will soon be hearing more hypocritical lectures:
It wasn't meant to be overheard. Private luncheon conversations among world leaders, picked up by a microphone, provided a rare window into both banter and substance _ including President Bush cursing Hezbollah's attacks against Israel.
Bush expressed his frustration with the United Nations and his disgust with the militant Islamic group and its backers in Syria as he talked to British Prime Minister Tony Blair during the closing lunch at the Group of Eight summit.
"See the irony is that what they need to do is get Syria to get Hezbollah to stop doing this s--- and it's over," Bush told Blair as he chewed on a buttered roll. [...]
The unscripted comments came during a photo opportunity at the lunch. The leaders clearly did not realize that a live microphone was picking up their discussion.
Asked about the microphone mishap during his final briefing of the summit, Blair quipped that it was "all about transparent government." He smiled and tapped the microphone in front of him.
Bush "sort of rolled his eyes and laughed" when told the comments had been audible and a copy had been made, said Press Secretary Tony Snow. "Actually his reaction first was, 'What did it say?' So we showed him the transcript, then he rolled his eyes and laughed."
Atlas Shrugs has the video while Ace of Spades has the proper perspective:
I don't care about this either way. I don't think it shows that Bush is "authentic" or "earthy," and neither do I think, as it will soon be claimed by the left, that this proves, as if it needs further proof, that he is "unsophisticated" in his thinking.
That's what annoys me. We're about to have every moron from Jon Stewart to Keith Olbermann doing a predictable bit of snark claiming that this is Bush's "complex and highly detailed plan for Middle East peace-- Syria just has to stop this shit."
Hee hee hee. Whooo-oooo! Brilliant comedy.
