"Chancellor Merkel is not amused."

Actually, Merkel and Bush have become good buddies over the recent few days according to news reports.

Found this video clip of Bush and Merkel buried in the comments section Kevin linked to... Now this is funny.

They are coming completely unglued about this. Their hypocrisy would be remarkable, if not predictable.

Now that's a comment section worth a beer...or two. Hillarious.
Amazing that they can say things so......uhhhh....stupid. And they think they're "right".

Speaking of "unglued", here's another clip posted in the Kos comments section - this one of a drunk George Bush at a wedding in 1992.

Sorry - wrong link - here's our Presdeint in all of his drunken glory.

Chancellor Merkel was not happy because he stopped so quickly.

Now if he had reached down and grabbed her boob, then there would be a problem. He'd be acting too much like Clinton.

From Marsh's post "Why is it that conservatives can't take issues that personally effect women seriously? It's like an affront to their manhood, which was proven after Bush's actions against Merkel turned her to disgust. No privacy, no respect, not even as the German Chancellor, because I can touch whomever I want. This is the response from conservatives in the modern era. No respect for women at all. When the leader of the Free World believes he can manhandle the German Chancellor at will there's a problem with the man. It's an affront to every woman and, frankly, most men; that is unless you're a boorish partisan who is just too plain ignorant to understand women deserve respect, which means HANDS OFF, unless you're invited. That it was the German Chancellor that Bush was fondling makes it even worse."

Do Marsh and his commenters really not think that Angela Merkel could tell Bush to fuck off if she so desired?! Do they not respect that she's a powerful woman in her own right - a world leader, for chrissake - and would quite clearly be able to stick up for herself if she really thought Bush was "sexually harassing" her? Merkel didn't get where she is today by being a shy retiring violet, and the notion that she needs people like Marsh to stick up for her is frankly patronising in the extreme.

And of course, one wonders ... if they think squeezing a woman's shoulders is sexual harassment, what the hell are their sex lives like?!

"What the hell are there sex lives like"

I shudder to think..issssssssh

Pretty much hit the nail on the head there Lizzie, good post.

Gee, for a crowd that never said one word about the sexual harrassment that Monica had to bear (in an executive's office, while on company time) a little shoulder rub really sets them off.

And, no, it wasn't consensual with Monica and Bubba. Sex on company time is never consensual just check out the litigation and career destroyed over "just" a little sex.

Lee,

If that's drunk, it proves you spend way too much time at Wizbang combating all of us. LOL.

How horribly inappropriate to squeeze her shoulders in public! That's so much worse than shooting spunk on a dress!

/sarcasm tag off

But on the bright side, for the young left, there are only 2.5 years remaining in Bush's presidency. Hell by that point most of the DailyKos blocs might even have graduated college. Then again maybe not.

Lee and his ilk at Kos have 806 adolescent insults regarding this meaningless clip so far. It is telling that a visual presidential gesture illicits a heightened sexual hysteria amongst the chimpanzee troop.

Lee, I need to know if you're in estrus? Lee? Lee with the soft hands?

"visual presidential gesture" lol...

"pucker puss" (lee lee) is in "heat" all the time.

I think that's an affront to college kids everywhere. Most I know aren't mind-numbed. Heck you know that quote "if you aren't liberal when you're twenty, you have no heart, if you aren't conservative when you're fifty, you have no brain"? Well I never really had a heart I guess. I was never much of a liberal, and quite a few at my school were the same way.

Please stop generalizing like that.

On a serious note the fact this non-issue even is being discussed here speaks volumes about the extent to which so many *conservatives* really are out to lunch.

The Senate is about to pass a landmark piece of legislation on a very important slate of medical/ethical/governmental issues. That legislation then will be vetoed by the first president to receive a majority of the popular vote since 1988.

Yet the lead story right now on what allegedly is a leading conservative web site is a puff piece about what a bunch of young college students are saying about some non-event with zero relevance to any issue on the face of the earth.

And people wonder why conservatives spent 60 years out of power, despite outnumbering liberals by more than a 3-1 margin, huh?

Unbelievable.

On another site, I saw individual frames of the video as 'pictures' of the interchange. They don't reveal as the video does, how brief Bush's shoulder-rub in fact was but they do reveal much more clearly the facial expressions of Bush and Merkel.

First it was a Faux Pas, a minor social indiscretion. Secondly, Bush clearly meant well, spontaneously offering 'support' to an ally.

This 'summit' has to have been a great strain on Bush, what with Russia's duplicity and the two-facedness of the EU powers. Merkel has been supportive of the US position. Bush is grateful.

Merkel did not welcome the gesture and he immediately pulled his hamds away when she indicated her discomfort.

The charges of sexual harrassment are silly.

What struck me the most was how deeply tired and greatly aged Bush appears. The man is under tremendous strain, very reminiscent of some pictures of Lincoln. That is not hyperbole, its very clear the impact the Presidency is having on Bush.

I suspect that Bush's tiredness contributed to his 'spontaneous Faux Pas'. The man is human and he's starting to show the personal cost to him of the responsibility of the Presidency in these trying times.

"Chancellor Merkel was not happy because he stopped so quickly."

She was actual heard to exclaim, Hey! I'll give you to three to cut that out...ninety-nine, ninety-eight, ninety-seven...."

"What struck me the most was how deeply tired and greatly aged Bush appears. The man is under tremendous strain, very reminiscent of some pictures of Lincoln."

No, his look is very reminiscent of that of donkey that just got whooped for shitting on someone's shoes...

Did Merkel really say "Go sit down *sshole!" or was that just static on the tape?

Lee, go away! I think you need to get a hearing test.

To me it looks like the reaction that I give my wife when I get an unexpected back massage and don't want it. How many people have had someone try to be nice, give them a back rub and them not want it and do what Merkel did?

What?

I'm not interested either which way, I just wanted to pick on Lee too =P

Simply put, Bush goofed. He, just like each of the rest of us, is not entitled to touch someone without his/her consent, no matter how "friendly" the intent. I'm glad to see he got the unmistakably unfavorable reaction that he did, as he seemed to need reminding that women's bodies are not public property. All too often, women silently endure men's petty transgressions against their personal boundaries. Brava, Chancellor!

The comments on KOS and Lee's infantile rants on here only show that the left wing democrats and for that matter the main line democrats have nothing constructive to offer the country. Absolutely nothing. They are a joke that is good for a laugh a day.
Well gotta go train at the Fire Department a few hours. Some of us really do volunteer full time.

He, just like each of the rest of us, is not entitled to touch someone without his/her consent, no matter how "friendly" the intent..All too often, women silently endure men's petty transgressions against their personal boundaries..

Typical politcal correctness run amok, on top of being a gross misinterpretation of a gesture by the Kos Kiddies; a gesture that's committed a thousand times a day by people who know on another, which the Chancellor and Bush obviously do.

If Bush had lightly tapped her on the shoulder, she'd have been startled. Clearly, she didn't see him behind her.

Malibu Stacy, your handle is great; your interpretation of the gestue is so much trumped up feminist tripe.

Lee,

Put a book in front of the hardon you've got over the chance to make fun of Bush.

Lee, a man has sex by putting his pee-pee in her wu-wu, and then the stork comes.

Jesus H. Christ get a life. Only a liberal could 1) take this seriously, 2) see this as sexual harassment.

This is why the average joe out there just takes in all the Lees of the world, shakes his head, and then votes Republican.

And by the way, I don't think Merkel was unhappy. She was trying to stretch a bit and just a bit of a stiff person as well. The herky jerky camera video gives a different impression.

So just get over it, Bitch.

Peter,

Where you see a startled gesture, I see a "get your hands off me" reaction. We obviously have different frames of reference; I've lived my whole life in a woman's body, and that's defnitely the message I'd be sending with her response.

If it's feminist tripe to suggest that we all keep our hands to ourselves unless we know we're welcome, then so be it. It's no skin off my nose if your sense of entitlement got bruised.

And thanks for the moniker appreciation; I can't say I have any complaints about Peter, either.

"Lee, a man has sex by putting his pee-pee in her wu-wu, and then the stork comes."

As the father of four I've already figured that out, Mitchell, but thanks for sharing your insight into the matter. When you see your high school Health Ed. teacher in September tell him/her that you were a good boy and remembered what you were taught.

No, it wasn't a faux pas. No, it wasn't a "boundary violation." It was an honorable and decent man making a gesture of friendship in an inoffensive way toward a friend. He was saying, "I'm happy to see you," and doing it in a way that is completely natural to him and a lot of other people when they're working a room. She was startled by it, but that doesn't make it even kind of wrong.

Good grief. It is insane that we're even talking about this. The fact the left is hyperventilating over this tells you how bankrupt they've become.

Malibu (or anyone else for that matter):

Do a little real-life experiment: Go up behind someone (preferably someone you know--friend, co-worker, whatever) who doesn't see you or doesn't you're "there", and squeeze their shoulders just slightly, say hi and let go, just like Bush did.

I swear you'll get the EXACT same reaction. I just did this to my buddy here at work and he was startled. (He then laughed, knowing exactly what I was doing; but I made my point to him, too.)

And Malibu, you're not acknowledging the context of the relationship; you're taking the stance that they're strangers. Clearly they are not. If they were strangers, then you'd be right--this gesture would or might be socially awkward. However, they do know each other and well. Friendly touches between friends, whether it's this gesture, an arm around their shoulder, a hug, a pat on the back or whatever, is not only socially acceptable, it's also healthy between friends.

(Heck, I thought the Left was all about 'touchy feely' stuff. That's what perplexes me about Lefties going cuckoo over this.)

Wasn't it Wizbang who accused Kennedy of "molesting" Alito's wife? Oh yeah, it was. I wonder if Wizbang considers this rape.

http://wizbangblog.com/2006/01/31/did-kennedy-molest-alitos-wife.php

Either way, molesting or raping, it's creepy.

As the father of four I've already figured that out, Mitchell, but thanks for sharing your insight into the matter.

There went my last shred of pro-life sentiments.

OK this is totally scary! I agree with the the right that this is nothing, but I think Lee was having a little fun at your expense. Relax, it's no different than you folks making fun of Ted hc* h