Whoa -- W just showed an ace on the table! Telln' ya'll, don't play poker with our cowboy!
 Only months after he criticized countries "like France," President Bush was lavish in his praise of French President Jacques Chirac, one of the sharpest critics of the U.S.-led war in Iraq. "I'm looking for a good cowboy," Bush said Monday when a French reporter asked him whether relations had improved to the point where the U.S. president would be inviting Chirac to the U.S. president's ranch in Texas.
| Brief, vivid images of Chirac clearning brush, to be rewarded by a lunch of beef and beans... |
Chirac had equally kind words to say about Bush, saying he and the American president "always had very warm relations."
| "At times they were downright inflamed..." |
Iraq? Merely a blip in ties between the two countries that have been "excellent for over 200 years now," Chirac said. "Now, of course, that doesn't mean that because we share common values, we don't necessarily agree on everything all the time," Chirac added, "That doesn't necessarily mean we agree on everything at every time."
| "That doesn't mean we're going to agree with taking Iran apart next year..." |
The two leaders spoke with reporters before they sat down to dinner of lobster risotto and filet of beef with Bordelaise sauce. "This is the first dinner since I've been re-elected on European soil, and it's with Jacques Chirac. And that ought to say something. It ought to say how important this relationship is for me, personally, and how important this relationship is for my country," Bush said. A White House official later said Chirac was expected to visit Bush in the United States this year, but neither a date nor a location had been determined.
As a Texan, keep him in Washington
| I'll be surprised if he makes it to Crawford. |
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