WTF Is It Now?!?

OUCH!
If sucking up to the House of Saud were an Olympic event, George W. Bush would be a contender for the gold.

He was at his fawning best last week, when he hosted the Saudi Arabian ambassador, Bandar bin Sultan, for lunch in Crawford, Texas. The ambassador, who showed up with six of his children, was treated to what The New York Times called "the full ranch treatment" - a meal of grilled chicken and biscuits followed by a personal tour in the president's pickup of the 1,600-acre ranch. The White House PR staff released photographs of the two men chatting, and President Bush's spokesman sang Bandar's praises. The Saudi envoy is "a very seasoned diplomat," WH spokes-tool Ari 'the Liar' Fleischer gushed, "a very affable fellow, very good humor, speaks English better than most Americans." Certainly better than Poppy's Little Poophead. Hours earlier Bush had phoned Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Abdullah and urged him to ignore the growing expressions of anti-Saudi sentiment in the United States - exemplified by the Rand Corporation analyst who had recently told a key Pentagon advisory board that the Saudis "are active at every level of the terror chain, from planners to financiers, from cadre to foot soldier, from ideologist to cheerleader."

Such talk, Bush assured him, "cannot affect the eternal friendship between the two countries."

Bush cannot honestly believe that there is "eternal friendship" between the United States and the country that supplied 15 of the 19 Sept. 11 hijackers. Certainly most Americans don't. A poll released last week indicates that 63 percent of the US public had a negative opinion of Saudi Arabia, up from 50 percent in May. And that's after the Saudis spent more than $5 million on a coast-to-coast advertising and lobbying blitz aimed at winning American hearts and minds.

- snipped from Jeff Jacoby's column in the Boston Globe (with some comments by yours truly, who couldn't help herself).