hehe.
Can I go to loo, asks Mr President, Jim McBeth,
Scotsman, 16 September 2005
THE hastily scribbled note could have been a request for help on the finer points of international law or a cogent comment on the state of the United Nations' Security Council.
But the message, which quietly passed from George Bush, the US president, to Condoleezza Rice, his Secretary of State, as the world's leaders looked on, was somewhat more prosaic - the leader of the free world wanted her permission to go to the loo.
"I think I may need a bathroom break. Is this possible?" Dubya asked, in a moment captured by a photographer with a fast eye and a long lens.
It is not known what her reply was but it offers an insight into the unique relationship between Ms Rice and her president, who once said: "This foreign policy stuff sure is frustrating."
The scenario will also provide ammunition to those critics of the president who believe he is indecisive and too reliant on his powerful advisers.
Wade Nelson, an American politics observer, said: "Apparently, the leader of the free world is equally afraid to take a bathroom break without asking permission from his Secretary of State.
"The possibility that a world leader feels he needs permission from a staffer to urinate begs the question: What kind of leader is this?
"Could he have stood up? Walked out? Or, in these situations, does protocol demand someone of lesser stature request a break so no-one knows the president needs to urinate?"
Mr Bush's misfortunes have helped feed the criticism.
Three years ago, he choked on a pretzel, fainted, fell off the sofa and cracked his face.
Sporting a bruise, he quipped: "I should have listened to mother: always chew your pretzel before swallowing!"
More recently, his standing with voters plummeted, not because of Iraq, but because he dropped Barney, the White House dog. He was castigated by animal welfare groups.
And at this year's G8 summit the president put a Scottish policeman in hospital by running into him on a mountain bike.
Mishaps apart, yesterday's "Please, miss!" moment shows how much he relies on Ms Rice.
Mark Fancher, the lawyer, writer and African-American activist, said: "Rice is so eager to please her boss that she not only carries out plans, but initiates and orchestrates."
Ms Rice is regarded as an "absolutist" on loyalty. Nicholas Lemann, the eminent political commentator, said Rice was "extremely sure of her value".
Whatever the high-flying political relationship, Scottish politicians sympathised with the president.
Brian Monteith, the Conservative MSP, said: "There are times in meetings when beneath your cheery smile you are bursting."
And Lothians MSP Margo MacDonald added: "It happens to the best of us."
