WH Lame Excuse for Maliki Snub... Who have you meet using the New Bush Logic?

[Ioo]

I am still looking for the exact quote but they said in a nutshell, "I have spoken to Maliki, and Maliki and Abdullah Spoke to each other before I got here so all three of us sitting together is redundant"

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6556138

says

Mr. Bush arrived in Jordan Wednesday evening, local time. He was to sit down with the Iraqi Prime Minister and the Jordanian King shortly thereafter. Instead came an announcement that the session would proceed without Maliki.

The White House denies it was a snub, saying that because the Prime Minister had met with Abdullah prior to Mr. Bush's arrival, that it made the multi-lateral session unncecessary.

"It negated the purpose for a meeting of the three of them," top White House aide Dan Bartlett said.

-end quote --

Using this logic my mother, Bill Clinton, Bill Gates and myself have all sat down together. You see I met Bill once, I know he has meet with Gates before, and well, my mother and I are close.

I wonder what we talked about at the Paula, Clinton, Gates, Ioo summit?

[Subdivisions]

1. Head-shakingly profound failure = George W. Bush

[MadMaddie]

2. He is really stupid isn't he....does he not realize that Malaki and

Abdullah have made plans and excluded the US in those plans? What the hell is wrong with him. This is a huge turning point..

He should have demanded the meeting....that was if he really cared....but I guess that's what happens when you have a pathetic, lazy leader...

[Little Wing]

3. Riiiiiight. Shrubbie flew alll the way out to some country he's never heard of and

already forgotten for a meeting that didn't happen because it would save time.

[Lautremont]

4. Here are many variations on the theme from Dan Bartlett:

MR. BARTLETT: The President is going to have a bilateral and dinner with the King of Jordan. Since the King of Jordan and Prime Minister Maliki had a bilateral themselves, earlier today, everybody believed that negated the purpose for the three of them to meet tonight, together, in a trilateral setting. So the plan, according to -- since they had such a good, productive bilateral discussion, was just for the President to deal with bilateral issues and other issues with the King this evening in a dinner setting, and then the meetings set for tomorrow will still take place as scheduled.

Q So the dinner is off, the three-way.

MR. BARTLETT: Right.

Q Well if Maliki -- he was never going to the dinner anyway, right? It was just supposed to be a meeting.

MR. BARTLETT: There was going to be a trilateral meeting, and then the dinner with the King. Now, since they already had a bilateral themselves, the King of Jordan and the Prime Minister, everybody felt, well, there's no reason for them to do a trilateral meeting beforehand, because matters had been discussed.

Q So the scheduled trilateral is scrapped.

MR. BARTLETT: Right.

Q But the dinner -- all three of them are still going to be at the dinner?

MR. BARTLETT: No.

Q Okay so Maliki is not doing anything?

MR. BARTLETT: The President will see Prime Minister Maliki in the morning.

Q In the morning, okay.

Q So there's no three-way forum.

MR. BARTLETT: Correct.

Q I came in late. Where is Maliki?

MR. BARTLETT: I assume he's at his hotel -- he's having dinner with somebody else tonight.

Q Why didn't he come here?

MR. BARTLETT: I just said that he had a meeting -- he had a bilateral earlier today with the King; they had a very good conversation, and afterwards they felt, well, since we had good conversations, we addressed issues, there was not an agenda for the three for a trilateral that they felt was necessary.

Q But don't you risk sending a political message that the three were supposed to get together tonight and now they're not, after the memo by Hadley and all? This wasn't a snub, or anything like that.

MR. BARTLETT: Absolutely not. And I think that will be demonstrated tomorrow, as well as the fact that the King and the Prime Minister had a good meeting themselves, today. The King is being a gracious host, allowing for the two leaders to meet tomorrow morning. No one should read too much into this, except for the fact that they had a good meeting. This gives an opportunity for the King and the President to catch up on issues that are in the interests of Jordan and the United States, as well as the broader region. The issue -- a discussion specifically about Iraq will be had tomorrow by the two leaders, by themselves.

Q No connection to the memo, whatsoever?

MR. BARTLETT: No.

Q The King and the Prime Minister had a meeting, but the Prime Minister hasn't seen the President since he got here, and the President changed his schedule to come here for this meeting.

MR. BARTLETT: The President requested the meeting. This was the President requesting the meeting with the Prime Minister. And the substantive meetings on Iraq -- look, they were not going to be doing a full detail discussion in a trilateral setting about Iraq and the future of Iraq and the strategy anyway, that just wouldn't be appropriate. So it was going to be more of a social meeting anyways. But the fact that they had already had a good meeting together, felt like it negated the purpose to doing so. And the President and Prime Minister Maliki will have a very robust and lengthy dialogue tomorrow morning.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/11/20061129-5.html

edited to add:

Ha ha! Three-way!

[Kelly Rupert]

5. Oh, I've met George W. Bush, Donald Rumsfeld, and John Kerry in the same room.

You see, a high-school history teacher of mine went on to be a part-time W speechwriter, I've met Bill Kristol and I know he's met Rumsfeld, and I've met Al Franken, who I'm sure had talked to John Kerry before.

It was a historic occasion.

[Retrograde]

8. So I must know you

'cause I once met Condi Rice's piano teacher, and we know she knows Bush. Why, that practically makes us the same person!

[Kelly Rupert]

9. Glad to meet me!

[dchill]

6. I guess we all need new definitions for...

"Snub" and "Redundant"

[htuttle]

7. Hell, I guess that means I had dinner with Keven Bacon after all...