Bush Wants Angie

As if we needed any clear indication that President Bush wants a CDU government in Berlin after the September 18 election.  Angela Merkel sent her foreign policy expert Wolfgang Schäuble to Washington with a love letter to the Bush administration.  Originally Schäuble was to meet with a the a relatively low-level liar, NSC head Stephen Hadley.  Then, as a bonus, he got an audience with a world-class liar, Hadley’s former boss Condoleezza "Mushroom Cloud" Rice.  And then, an unhoped-for surprise – a 45-minute meeting with the Liar-in-Chief.

But, in a sign that Washington is interested in improving US-German relations should the conservatives sweep September’s election as many predict, Schäuble got the red carpet treatment — an unscheduled 45-minute meeting with President George W. Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

Speaking at a press conference in Hamburg on his return, Schäuble described the atmosphere at the meeting as "very direct." The president is "a man with whom you can speak very openly," Schäuble said.

We don’t have a transcript of Schäuble’s meeting with President Bush, but undoubtedly he gave the president assurances that once Angela Merkel is chancellor things will return to just like the old days, where German foreign policy is made in Washington rather than Berlin.  Deputy SPD Chairperson Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul had the correct interpretation about the meeting:

Berlin (SPD-Pressestelle) – Die Äußerungen des stellvertretenden CDU/CSU-Fraktionsvorsitzenden Schäuble nach seinem Zusammentreffen mit US-Präsident Bush zeigen eines deutlich: Eine unionsgeführte Bundesregierung plant die deutsche Außenpolitik zurück ins Kielwasser der amerikanischen Außenpolitik zu ziehen und dabei deutsche und europäische Interessen zurückstehen zu lassen. Damit würde die von Bundeskanzler Gerhard Schröder formulierte Linie einer starken transatlantischen Partnerschaft bei einer gleichzeitig selbstbewussten und friedensbetonten deutschen Außenpolitik aufgegeben.

Oh, and it is really too bad that Schäuble neglected to ask President Bush about the fate of Murat Kurnaz, the young Turkish man from Bremen who has been held for more than three years without charges at the US military detention camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.  I guess he was under orders from Mekel not to ask any questions that would upset the President – a clear signal for how German-US relations will be after the German election.