WP: Same Old Bush

[sabra]

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A44219-2005Feb22.html

Same Old Bush

By Dan Froomkin
Special to washingtonpost.com
Tuesday, February 22, 2005; 1:08 PM

Not quite halfway through his European tour, President Bush was asked this morning: Is there anything to his visit beyond a charm offensive? What will make the second-term Bush presidency less dictating and unilateralist than the first?

The question was raised by a European reporter at this morning's joint press conference with NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer.


Bush's answer, in short: Nothing. It's Europe that needs to get over the Iraq issue and move on.

Here's how he put it:

"The major issue that irritated a lot of Europeans was Iraq. I understand that. I can figure it out. And the key now is to put that behind us, and to focus on helping the new democracy succeed."

....

Bush's long answer was presaged by a much shorter exchange a few moments earlier. A reporter from the French newspaper Le Monde began a meandering question by noting that Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld, on a scouting trip to Europer earlier this month, described himself as a new Rumsfeld. (That was to distinguish from the "old Rumsfeld" who had condemned European countries that refused to back the war against Iraq.)

"Same old Bush," the president interrupted.

Here's the transcript .

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edit: link

[Skittles]

1. Innocent people are still being killed every day in Iraq

and he wants to "put it behind us". What a f***ing ASSHOLE.