Political Cortex: Brain Food for the Body Politic

Bush refused to hold a press conference, as is customary, or to take any reporters' questions. Perhaps the questions he feared to take will catch up with him, the next time Bush stops ducking. Anyway, this stealth summit gives a pretty clear impression of a badly weakened President.

Berlusconi came out of the situation with egg on his face. To begin with, in his brief remarks sitting next to Bush, he managed to sound more like a toady than even Tony Blair in similar circumstances. He praised Bush, who he said would be remembered for being "far-sighted." Also, "It is for us a reason of pride to be side by side with our American ally in broadening the borders of democracy and freedom in the world and in order to pursue peace, which is something we all aspire to."

When Berlusconi later spoke with Italian reporters at the Embassy, he really shot himself in the foot. There is a brief account by Reuters in English, and a better one in Italian in La Repubblica.

Initially, he gave reporters to believe that Bush wants him to win re-election in April.

"About this I said to Bush: I'll win. The American government fears a change of government in Italy, because it's aware of the plans of the left. When the candidate of the left announces that there will be an immediate withdrawal from Iraq if he wins the election, I don't think there's any need to explain why they're concerned."

A little later, however, Berlusconi realized that he'd just blown his own foot off. So he reloaded and doubled back:

"Bush did not tell me that exactly. But it's obvious that after hearing the leader of the left declare that if he wins the election he'll pull the troops out of Iraq, just as Zapatero did, it's enough to add one and one to figure out how the American President thinks. As always, the U.S. does not interfere in other countries' internal affairs, especially during elections and before elections."

Not satisfied that he'd made himself look sufficiently foolish, Berlusconi dug down even deeper into his twisted soul. He declared that in the electoral campaign he would refuse to debate on TV the "little leaders" of the left wing parties in Italy. He also tried to backtrack on his ridiculous claim that he'd tried to dissuade Bush from war in Iraq; Berlusconi now says there were other allied leaders who also sought to dissuade Bush, but that he fell in line once the decision had been made.

And when it seemed things could not get worse for him, Berlusconi actually parrotted Bush while rebuffing talk of an early withdrawal of troops: Italy, he said, will not remain in Iraq "one minute longer than necessary, once we're certain that in Iraq there is an independent and democratic state." Before the trip, Berlusconi had said that the foremost subject of discussion with Bush would be a timetable for the withdrawal of Italian troops.

To sum up. Bush's troubles with Italy probably will come back to haunt him at some stage. Berlusconi, in any case, has taken an almost impossible situation for himself and made it unbelievably worse. He's shown himself to be an utter fool, and in the process outraged Italians as well as Bush. It's really been a tour de force.

And yes, the title is borrowed from Rocky Horror (an epithet spoken by the Criminologist, easily my favorite character in any film aside from Dr. Strangelove).

I would remark, on the side, that it is quite a turn of affairs if in fact the leader of an Italian Fascist party (Fini) has set himself the task of restraining the war lust of an American President. It is hard to conceive of a more depressing measure of how far our country's stature in the world has fallen, than to have a fascist presenting himself as a peacemaker in relation to the US.

I'm not talking about me, personally.  The paper I've been with since 2002 ran an article about the signs of fascism during my first year or two as editor.  But there is a persistent reluctance to talk openly of this, which is frighteningly similar to what happened in Germany in the 1930s.  Every outrage was greeted by equivocation, or at best mild protest.  The entire run-up to WWII was spent "keeping our powder dry."

The more that "responsible" commentators continue to refrain from calling a spade a spade, the more that talk of fascism will be limited to a small fringe, who will necessarily be prone to extremist expression--either in tone or content.  This, in turn, will make the charge itself seem extreme.

But fascism is certainly what we're looking at.  And this little news tidbit is but one more triangulation point to locate the true political position of the Bush regime.

"Be realistic. Demand the impossible!" --Wall poster from the 1968 Paris Uprising

Nicely done.

Taxes shall be levied according to ability to pay. That is the only American principle. FDR

Great diary.  I have been keeping up with Italy, but from the yellowcake connection.  This just adds to the absurdity.

Still shaking my head.

All it takes to fly is to hurl yourself at the ground... and miss. (Douglas Adams)