by Mark Silva
It was all love and blowing-kisses at the traditional "family" photograph for the leaders of the Group of Eight meeting in Japan, but behind the festive scene the White House was apologizing to the Italian government for a certain gaffe.
President Bush, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and others strolled out of the Windsor hotel on scenic Lake Tova in the scenic hinterlands of Japan, a fog lifting over the lake. As they departed the photo opportunity, Berlusconi caught sight of an excited gaggle of hotel staff jumping and waving at a second-floor window, the intrepid pool reporter on duty tells us. Berlusconi pulled French President Nicolas Sarkozy over and started blowing kisses at the window. Bush and others waved as well.
But the White House was busy waving off a written description of Berlusconi and his government contained in the official briefing book for the traveling White House press - words which had made unwelcome headlines for Berlusconi back home in Italy.
The biography describes Berlusconi as one of the "most controversial leaders in the history of a country known for government corruption and vice."
The synopsis, the work of the Encyclopedia of World Biography, reports that Berlusconi burst onto the political scene with no experience and used his "vast network of media holdings" to finance his campaign on a promise to "purge the notoriously lackadaisical Italian government of corruption." It goes on to say that he and "his fellow Forza Italia Party leaders soon found themselves accused of the very corruption he had vowed to eradicate."
In a written apology, White House spokesman Tony Fratto acknowledged that the biography had used insulting language. "The sentiments expressed in the biography do not represent the views of President Bush, the American government, or the American people," said Fratto, whose family hails from Italy. "We apologize to Italy and to the prime minister for this very unfortunate mistake."
Corriere della Sera, one of several Italian newspapers featuring the story on its front page, announced: "US gaffe, then the apology."
The Associated Press' Deb Reichmann and the appreciated pool reporting of Krishna Guha of the Financial Times contributed to this report.
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Comments
We live in a world where you have to apologize for telling the truth.
Anybody who has read up on Italian history knows that Italian governments have been corrupt. To be fair, Italy is probably less corrupt today than it was in the days of Mussolini, Salandra or Giolitti.
Posted by: Bruce | July 8, 2008 9:08 AM
diplomacy? what's that?
Posted by: scott | July 8, 2008 9:37 AM
Unfortunately, the description was correct albeit politically incorrect. The Italians are saying the same thing themselves.
Posted by: Ryan | July 8, 2008 10:27 AM
I think it was strange of them to present the tour as such. Even if it might be true. You don't give people a tour of your house and tell them where all the cracks are. Y does the description of the Italian-- look like something one would use to politically incorrectly describe Obama's run to the WH. WH going subliminal. Or just it happens that Italian politics serendipitously have overlaped with current US politics...
Posted by: writing no walls | July 8, 2008 10:46 AM
Unfortunately, they made comments similar, to what the Italians could have said about the current administration.
Posted by: Erich | July 8, 2008 10:47 AM
Bruce,
Do you even know 3 facts about Salandra or Giolitti? Wikipedia lets everyone become an expert. Too bad you didn't check Wikipedia before you laughably claimed that no candidate in the history of Presidential primaries has been assassinated in your crude attempt to attack Obama for having Secret Service protection.
Posted by: jethro | July 8, 2008 10:59 AM
What is the story, that this White House is totally incompetent !!? That's not news, that's the funnies !! Unfortunately, that is our country and they are misrepresenting us, and they have succeeded in making us the laughing stock of the world. Way to go, Republicans !!
SUPPORT OUR TROOPS, BRING THEM HOME, ALIVE AND WHOLE. NOW.
Posted by: Don Fitzgerald, Chicago | July 8, 2008 12:51 PM
I am getting sick and tired of people not paying attention to what they are doing. Society in general is on the brink of a death spiral because of 'cut-and-paste' - seems nobody actually READS anything! Reading comprehension, due diligence and paying attention to your audience and what you are doing seem to be a lost art!
Posted by: Alex | July 8, 2008 3:09 PM
"He who is innocent cast the first stone."
Are we forgetting about Water Gate, ENRON, The Savings and Loan disaster, etc...
How about going back to the Civil War, when you could buy your way out of serving under arms.
Oh yes! we can always quote history. Whose history? Written by whom? The victors of WWII?
How about that repetitive quote that I see in the American Media all the time: "...And it's Italy's 41st government since WWII." It makes it sound like a coup in Latin America. What it actually is is a vote of confidence on who the italians want to lead their country. The government per se does not change. Which always brought a thought in my mind: "In my 14 years of growing up in Italy I don't recall any upevels and 'falling' governments.
Then someone has the gaul to say that Mussolini's government was more corrupt than today's standards. That's not what italians of that era (my mother and father included) always said.
Here is some foof for thought. Two of NY City's foremost corruption fighting mayors (LaGuardia and Giuliani) were derivative of that so called corrupt gene-pool.
Posted by: sonny | July 9, 2008 5:12 AM