Bush a "Moron" according to Canadian spokesperson

[ladywithspinninghead]

Okay, a lot of you may have heard about this already...(forgive me if it's already come up!)...

For those that don't know, Canada's spokesperson to the Prime Minister, Francoise Ducros, called Bush a "moron" for concentrating on Iraq at the latest NATO meeting in Prague...

The reaction to this comment has been interesting to say the least; not surprisingly, certain commentators in the U.S. (Crossfire on CNN for eg) and the opposition in Canada have been calling for her head.
Then there's those in Canada who called me up today wanting the Prime Minister's address so that a bunch of scholars around the world could pitch in and send her flowers......
Even the Iraqi press condoned the comment (no surprise, hehe!)

She actually offered to resign but Chretien refused to accept her resignation...

What do you all think? Do you think she ought to be canned for having made a comment in a private conversation that the media just happened to overhear? (so the story goes)...Or do you think that she deserves a raise?

Don't forget - it was her personal opinion and she doesn't represent the Canadian gov't official view....

[RavenStar]

I think she should be left alone. She called Bush a moron because he was "adding fuel to the fire". I take that as saying he's a moron for "feeding the fire" but not a whole moron. That makes no sense but Im not sure how to put it.

[diamond]

[Zoomerang96]

oooh, so someone called mr bush a moron. big frickin deal. its not news to anyone.

[DrTeeth]

We had a similar thing going on here a few years ago when the minister of economy called Jaques Chirac a creep. She wasn't asked to resign even though she said it on purpose on a talkshow.

[unforgettableFOXfire]

Sure, its ok for US political commentators to equate canada to terrorists, and enemies of the US, call us 'wusses', and 'weiners' as well as whiners... but no, its not ok for a Canadian to point out what most of the population already knows, the fact that bush has his moments when hes not the sharpest knife in the drawer. Heaven forbid someone in our country have balls enough to admit something of the truth. But no, its going against the leader of the greatest super power in the world. Better hang that canuck for treason before anarchy ensues. The apocalypse is coming! The apocalypse is coming! Flee the village! Save the children!

[The Wanderer]

I heard about this last week, I could really care less, I was surprised to see your Prime Minister so apologetic for it, guess he's just being a good diplomat on his way out...

[kobayashi]

Originally posted by The Wanderer
I heard about this last week, I could really care less, I was surprised to see your Prime Minister so apologetic for it, guess he's just being a good diplomat on his way out...

he is attempting to 'save face'.
there is a lot of press about him not being as successful a statesman in relations with the US as his most significant predecessor, brian mulroney.

just a point to clarify, to the best of my knowledge, ducros is not so much of a spokesperson within the Prime Minister Office. rather she is the communications director for the PMO.

[U2Bama]

She is irrelevant and the Bush administration is not even addressing it. I could not care less about her employment situation. That should be her booger, not mine.

[anitram]

The only reason this is even news is because the garbage known as The National Compost printed it on their front page after a reporter of theirs overheard it being said in an allegedly private conversation.

Don't people have anything better to report?

[ladywithspinninghead]

Originally posted by The Wanderer
I heard about this last week, I could really care less, I was surprised to see your Prime Minister so apologetic for it, guess he's just being a good diplomat on his way out...

haha, actually Chretien was hardly apologetic about it...He just said "Bush isn't a moron, he's a friend" and hasn't said a peep since!!

I love our straight-shooting politicians in Canada


p.s.: Hi Anitram!
By the way, I hadn't known it was a National Post reporter who had overheard the conversation...that undermines the entire credibility of the story right there!

[diamond]

...some of my best friends are considered to be morons..

thank u
DB9

[Zoomerang96]

Originally posted by ladywithspinninghead



I love our straight-shooting politicians in Canada

*gag

please. chretyenn is the exact definition of bleeding heart liberal.

i would prolly vote liberal, but the way they treat the west is unnacceptable. but because we dont have much a population, we dont have as many votes...

farmers are being jailed for selling their wheat across the border, while in quebec and ontario its completely fine.

*doesnt like chretien.

however, i do hope paul martin becomes our next pm.

[Mrs. Edge]

Well, the latest is that she had indeed resigned. Here is an editorial that I found rather amusing....

Bush fails to meet moron criteria


The debate over whether George W. Bush is a moron continues to sputter. Morons are outraged at being lumped in with the U.S. president. Americans, meanwhile, are mildly amused that it has taken Canadians so long to discover the obvious.

The controversy exploded last week when Francoise Ducros, an adviser to Prime Minister Jean Chrétien, was overheard at a NATO meeting in Prague saying, "What a moron," apparently in relation to Bush.

Morons say this is an outlandish slur. "We're nice people," explained one. "We don't threaten other countries or use the courts to steal elections. George W. Bush may be a dangerous lunatic. But he's no moron."

Chrétien seems to agree. "He's not a moron at all," the Prime Minister told reporters on Thursday, referring to Bush.

Still, the opposition parties are not content. The Canadian Alliance argues that if Bush discovers he is a moron, this could affect Canada-U.S. relations.

Chrétien, however, says there is nothing to worry about. Bush, he said, doesn't read Canadian newspapers

According to the International Dictionary of Medicine and Biology, most morons are "educable and do not require institutionalization but need some supervision in working at some simple job by which they can become self-sustaining members of society."

Some have argued that this definition fits Bush to a tee. In most matters, they note, he is carefully supervised by Vice-President Dick Cheney, Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfield and Attorney-General John Ashcroft.

Cheney and Rumsfield run Bush's wars while Ashworth stifles domestic opposition. At home in the White House, first lady Laura Bush is charged with watching over the president.

"Since the president's inauguration, he's only been left unsupervised once — to watch a football game on television," recalled one expert. "And look what happened. He fell off the couch, choked on a pretzel and hurt his head."

While the Canadian media have gone gaga over the Bush-is-moron story, Americans seem to have taken it in their stride. "Once again, Canadians have discovered the obvious," editorialized the Wall Street Journal dismissively. "Duh, Canada" riposted the New York Post.

In a lengthy analysis, the New York Times pointed out that Americans have long made a practice of electing dead people to the Senate and morons to the presidency.

"This kind of flexibility is what makes U.S. democracy so vital," the Times went on. "Why should the Senate be denied the wisdom of those who have passed on? Why should the presidency be the preserve of the mentally capable?"

Recent polls suggest that most Americans agree. A stunning 67 per cent of respondents think that Bush is a moron compared with the next largest category, 28 per cent, who believe him to be a space alien.

Yet neither has affected his 82 per cent approval rating.

"He may be a moron," explained one respondent interviewed by pollsters. "But he's our moron. He speaks our language."

Meanwhile, in Canadian journalistic circles, an ethical debate rages over whether the original moron comment should have been printed at all.

Ducros apparently made the crack in private conversation to one journalist (who did not publicize it) but was overheard by another, the National Post's Bob Fife, who did.

Chrétien says that Ducros was actually defending Bush.

"Fife overheard the words accurately," said one senior federal source," but he didn't hear the punctuation.

"Francie didn't say `What a moron!' She said 'What? A moron?' and then stormed out. She was reacting because the reporters were referring to Bush as a moron and she couldn't bear the insult to such a dear friend of Canada."

Still others say that Fife missed the possessive.

"We were all sitting around the briefing room waiting to find out if Uzbekistan would be accepted as a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization," said one scribe. "Francie was doing the crossword in the International Herald Tribune and the clue for six across was a four-letter word for moron beginning with B.

"English isn't Francie's first language, so she asked everyone, What's a moron? Bob just missed the apostrophe s."

However, to some media experts, the actual words said don't matter. For a journalist to report something he heard, they say, could destroy the entire edifice of source-based journalism.

"If political aides think they'll be identified when they badmouth their bosses' opponents anonymously, they'll stop doing it," said one.

"Then what would happen? The media would have no stories."

Still others defended Fife's actions.

"The moron story was a windfall for our members," said an official with the Canadian Association of Columnists.

"Bush as moron? It doesn't get any better. Every two-bit columnist in the country is taking advantage of this baby. They'll all be able to go home early."

[nbcrusader]

This just in from Reuters.....

The top aide to Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien who called President Bush a "moron" resigned Tuesday, saying the controversy generated by the comment had made her position untenable.

[cloudimani]

10/10 for observation.
Hardly news though is it?

[diamond]

this is..is..a moronic excuse for a thread..damn u all to hell
plez qwit picking on my friend

thank u
DB9

[Danospano]

She isn't even an American, and people want her to resign? People are screaming for her head? This is a joke, right?

Heck, I call Bush a moron all the time. I can call him a c***-sucking, piece o' s***, dictator, "N*zi", son-of-a-bitch, loser, scumbag, mother-****ing, rich boy, *itler, daddy's little princess, oil foil, GOP, Republicrat, d****bag, and there's nothing anyone can do to me.

It's my right, as it is every Canadian's right.

I think the fact that a government official considers Bush a moron is very valuble in discovering the true nature of the man. How many leaders or spokesmen for world leaders called Clinton a moron? Reagan a moron? Carter a moron? Doesn't this mean something?

[bonoman]

My Prof just got back from Washington last week. He said every person that found out that he was Canadian asked him what he thought. He was even on the news. They asked him if this is the concenus in Canada, he answered that he does not speak for all Canadians but personally he thought Bush was a moron. And he went on to say that Trudeu was the only PM to actually say things about the presidents. This prof of mine used to work with Trudeu and said many a times he called Nixon an idoit and a cocksucker.

[zonelistener]

I am pretty sure that this whole thing was forgotten by the American public ten minutes after it was reported - or they laughed along.

I ws shocked to see it be the "main issue" on the Sunday morning talk shows in Canada - it really is a non-issue.

It is too bad she resigned.