HelloAngel
ONE love, blood, life
http://www.washingtonpost.com/
Bono's Blessing
By Lloyd Grove
Denizens of the Bush White House regard curmudgeonly former Treasury secretary Paul O'Neill as a burr under their saddle, happily extracted. But O'Neill, who was forced out of his job in December, is fondly remembered by that all-important Irish rocker lobby.
Chatting with The Post's Paul Blustein on Tuesday, U2's Bono warmly praised O'Neill, who exactly a year ago took the rock star on a two-week trip through Africa to highlight the problems of poverty and AIDS.
"There are people who are true-blue conservatives in the Midwest, who are offended by the wanton waste of life in Africa and want to do something about it," Bono told Blustein from Italy, where he was visiting Luciano Pavarotti and hoping to personally persuade Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi to open Italy's wallet to help fight worldwide AIDS. "But the thing that set it up and got Africa into people's homes was Paul O'Neill asking me to go on that trip. And whilst it might have torched my image as a rock star, I think it gave a sense . . . that we were serious and that we knew what we were talking about -- we weren't just bleeding hearts."
Bono also had sweet words for President Bush, who just signed into law a $15 billion global AIDS program. "It's a surprising message for me to bring to my community -- that people did not mislead me, and people made good on their promises," Bono said. "I remember the carping, I remember the cynicism. I had some of it myself. So you have to give credit where credit is due."
Bono's Blessing
By Lloyd Grove
Denizens of the Bush White House regard curmudgeonly former Treasury secretary Paul O'Neill as a burr under their saddle, happily extracted. But O'Neill, who was forced out of his job in December, is fondly remembered by that all-important Irish rocker lobby.
Chatting with The Post's Paul Blustein on Tuesday, U2's Bono warmly praised O'Neill, who exactly a year ago took the rock star on a two-week trip through Africa to highlight the problems of poverty and AIDS.
"There are people who are true-blue conservatives in the Midwest, who are offended by the wanton waste of life in Africa and want to do something about it," Bono told Blustein from Italy, where he was visiting Luciano Pavarotti and hoping to personally persuade Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi to open Italy's wallet to help fight worldwide AIDS. "But the thing that set it up and got Africa into people's homes was Paul O'Neill asking me to go on that trip. And whilst it might have torched my image as a rock star, I think it gave a sense . . . that we were serious and that we knew what we were talking about -- we weren't just bleeding hearts."
Bono also had sweet words for President Bush, who just signed into law a $15 billion global AIDS program. "It's a surprising message for me to bring to my community -- that people did not mislead me, and people made good on their promises," Bono said. "I remember the carping, I remember the cynicism. I had some of it myself. So you have to give credit where credit is due."