EVEN A BLIND PIG FINDS AN ACORN OCCASSIONALLY :

W.'s Spaghetti Western (MAUREEN DOWD, May 29, 2002, NY Times)

After NBC's David Gregory asked Mr. Chirac, who speaks English, in French if he would like to comment on a question he'd asked Mr. Bush about Europe's view of America as imperious, Mr. Bush had a petit fit.

"Very good, the guy memorizes four words, and he plays like he's intercontinental," he said sarcastically as a bemused Mr. Chirac looked on. "I'm impressed. Que bueno. Now I'm literate in two languages." Mr. Bush did not care that foreign reporters usually ask him questions in English, or that he often sprinkles Spanish into his speeches with Hispanic groups.

He felt he was being mocked or tricked in some way, even though the question wasn't even directed at him. He was tired and he let his famously thin skin show too easily.

There is something bizarre about watching an Andover-, Yale- and Harvard-educated president, the grandson of an elegant Connecticut senator and the son of a gracious internationalist president, have a hissy fit because a reporter asks a legitimate question about European angst and talks to a Frenchman in French.

W.'s anti-elitism is sometimes refreshing, but does he have to carry it around all the time? He shouldn't be forced to be a chip off the old block, but he should lose the chip on his shoulder.

Part of restoring dignity to the White House, besides keeping your pants on, is not using your considerable power to humiliate people. Mr. Gregory came across like Eddie Haskill, but Mr. Bush came across like a schoolyard bully. This moment was beneath him and the dignity of the office. Posted by Orrin Judd at May 29, 2002 8:42 AM