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| Europe |
| French begged Bush to take call |
| 2003-04-16 |
| A clear-the-air telephone call between President Jacques Chirac and President George W Bush this week was secured only by repeated pleading from French diplomats, it emerged yesterday. The 20-minute call on Tuesday was the first time they had spoken for more than two months. When asked if the talk had been "positive", Ari Fleischer, Mr Bush's spokesman, said: "From the President's point of view, he would call it a business-like conversation." M Chirac's spokesman said he had been "pragmatic" about post-war Iraq. Before the call could be arranged, Jean-David Levitte, the French ambassador to Washington, had to lobby Karl Rove, Mr Bush's chief political strategist, and Stephen Hadley, the deputy national security adviser, at the White House. Final American agreement to the call was secured only after discussions on Monday between Colin Powell, the US secretary of state, and Dominique de Villepin, the French foreign minister. |
| Posted by:Anonymous |
| #2 Can we bomb France next? |
| Posted by: trapper 2003-04-17 00:05:48 |
| #1 "Historians studying 'The Call' revealed that during the entire time Chirac thought he was having a private conversation with Bush, Rumsfeld, Rice, Powell and Cheney were listening in on the speaker phone in the Oval Office. "According to Lord Hadley-Smythe in 2035's smash non-fiction best-seller "Payback's a Bitch: Chirac and the Decline of France", the President's contribution to the conversation mainly consisted of monosyllabic yeses, uh-huhs, and oks. Chirac thought that this was just another time that the President was being somewhat less than eloquent. "But historians have discovered what really happened. According to Rice, who later became the first female President, Bush had to hit the mute button when Cheney started to do his impression of Chirac. It grew further out of control when Rummy started to demonstrate what Rice described as 'interesting gestures he learned over the past 70 years symbolizing impossible sexual acts, usually involving mammals other than primates.' "Powell sarcastically commented on Chirac's suggestions in a German accent. President Rice later learned that he stole some of his best lines from a blog called Rantburg. "Rice, leaning back in her leather chair at her Presidential library, smiled and pleaded the 5th when asked what she did at this historic moment. When Lord Hadley-Smythe pressed for details, she winked and asked, 'How 'bout those Redskins?'" |
| Posted by: Baba Yaga 2003-04-16 22:09:54 |