The President and the open microphone.

Yesterday, I considered writing a little post about President Bush's remarks that were caught on a microphone that wasn't supposed to be on, but I couldn't think up anything interesting to say about it. (The key quote is: "See, the irony is what they really need to do is to get Syria to get Hezbollah to stop doing this shit.") Frankly, I don't care if the President says "shit" in private conversations unless it upsets the person he's talking to.

Then, I saw the brutal treatment of President Bush that Jon Stewart did last night on "The Daily Show," and I reconsidered. The funny thing is that what bothered me intensely was the way President Bush was chewing with his mouth open right before he said it, which Stewart imitated mercilessly. But that's got nothing to do with a microphone left on. He knew he was on camera. I really don't get it! He eats like that at an official affair? That's only marginally acceptable at a backyard barbecue with your drunken friends.

Anyway, reading the NYT this morning, I was surprised at how mellow its article was. They don't find the actual "shit" quote fit to print. They just say:

Using a vulgarity, Mr. Bush said at one point that Syria should get Hezbollah to stop its attacks on Israel, describing American policy in the kind of unfettered language that he acknowledged only weeks ago sometimes gets him in trouble when he uses it publicly.

But Jim Rutenberg's article doesn't concentrate on that one quote, but on the general tone of the President's "chit-chat."

“No, I’m just going to make it up,” Mr. Bush said in one aside, presumably to an aide, apparently referring to remarks he would be making to the other leaders. “I’m not going to talk too damn long like the rest of them. Some of these guys talk too long.”

I'm sure they do. They've got Bush in their presence to lecture.

...Mr. Blair walks by, and the president yells out, “Yeah, Blair, what are you doing? Leaving?” It is the beginning of a conversation contrasting Mr. Blair’s soft-spoken style to Mr. Bush’s more forceful one, with Mr. Bush often interrupting him.

After Mr. Blair raises the issues of global trade talks, Mr. Bush abruptly changes the subject to a recent gift from the prime minister for Mr. Bush’s 60th birthday. “Thanks for the sweater, awfully thoughtful of you,” Mr. Bush says, then jokes, “I know you picked it out yourself.”

Mr. Blair, laughing, says, “Oh, absolutely, absolutely.”

Mr. Bush again abruptly changes the subject to the most serious matter of the meetings here, the Middle East. “What about Kofi?” he says, referring to Mr. Annan. “That seems odd.”...

“I don’t like the sequence of it,” Mr. Bush said. “His attitude is basically, cease fire and everything else happens.”

Does it hurt to hear that?

ADDED: And then there's "einer Blitz-Massage."