Horton Humiliates a Hu

Thanks to OD1 for the story link. I caught some of this yesterday on the radio, but missed the citation.

The Washington Post's Dan Froomkin has a massive round-up of the coverage of Hu's visit that I'd highly recommend. The long and short of it is BushCo made for inconsiderate-- if not downright rude-- hosts, and came away from the meeting having accomplised pretty much nothing. A low point from Dana Milbank:

"It took so long to silence [the heckler] -- a full three minutes -- that Bush aides began to wonder if the Secret Service's strategy was to let her scream herself hoarse. The rattled Chinese president haltingly attempted to continue his speech and television coverage went to split screen.

" 'You're okay,' Bush gently reassured Hu.

"But he wasn't okay, not really. The protocol-obsessed Chinese leader suffered a day full of indignities -- some intentional, others just careless. The visit began with a slight when the official announcer said the band would play the 'national anthem of the Republic of China' -- the official name of Taiwan. It continued when Vice President Cheney donned sunglasses for the ceremony, and again when Hu, attempting to leave the stage via the wrong staircase, was yanked back by his jacket. Hu looked down at his sleeve to see the president of the United States tugging at it as if redirecting an errant child."

To think that there are people out there who aren't charmed by Bush's "aw,shucks" schtick.