I Think We Have Our Answer

And I’m referring to the question of whether or not George W. Milhous Bush intends to boycott the opening ceremonies of the Summer Olympics in Beijing this August (and of course, we hear about it from a lackey and not the actual horse’s ass commander-in-chief himself)…

A top White House official on Sunday criticized foreign leaders who plan to skip the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in Beijing following China’s crackdown in Tibet, calling such actions a “cop out” far less effective than the “quiet diplomacy” the United States is pursuing.

I believe, in an earlier era under another Republican president, “quiet diplomacy” was once called “constructive engagement,” by the way.

“The whole issue of opening ceremonies is a nonissue,” said the official, Stephen J. Hadley, the national security adviser. “I think it is a way of dodging what really needs to happen.”

Mr. Hadley did not single out any foreign leaders by name. Prime Minister Gordon Brown of Britain and Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany have said they will not attend the opening of the Games on Aug. 8. President Nicolas Sarkozy of France has said he may boycott the ceremony if China refuses to open a dialogue with the Dalai Lama, the exiled spiritual leader of Tibet.

“This issue is in some sense a bit of a red herring,” Mr. Hadley said on “Fox News Sunday.” “I think, unfortunately, a lot of countries say, ‘Well, if we say that we are not going to the opening ceremonies, we’ve checked the box on Tibet.’ That’s a cop out.”

Typical Bushco – come up with the wrong answer and insult as many people in the process as possible (though, as that “elitist” Barack Obama so correctly observed here, “it’s hard to tell your banker that he’s wrong” – I for one have no desire to play a game of economic “chicken” with a country that is becoming the biggest economic power in the world…”you liquidate our debt and you lose the value of trillions in T-Bills; but meanwhile, our economy takes that ‘big slide’ into the hopper once and for all”).

Update: More glorious AP stenography here...