Kerry & Allawi

When most heads of state from other nations come to America, the rival party, or in this case rival candidate, usually shows that person the respect they deserve by their title. Not John Kerry:

In this respect, John Kerry isn't exactly the best advertisement for his Swiss finishing school. Forget the impeccable carriage -- if you imagine you're watching streaming video on a slow dial-up connection, his gait seems perfectly natural. But the manners thing seems to have passed him by entirely. His decision to break the time-honored tradition of keeping out of the way during the other guy's convention by rushing on the air within an hour of President Bush's speech to give an instant response was boorish and petty. But, given that his ''midnight rambler'' routine in Ohio was a disaster, there didn't seem much point dwelling on it.
But last week he did it again. Ayad Allawi, the first prime minister of post-Saddam Iraq, was in Washington to give a joint address to Congress. A tough, stocky, bullet-headed optimist, Iraq's interim leader delivered a simple, elegant and moving speech, which made three basic points:
''First, we are succeeding in Iraq. [Applause] It's a tough struggle with setbacks, but we are succeeding . . .
''The second message is quite simple and one that I would like to deliver directly from my people to yours: Thank you, America [Applause] . . .
''Third, I stand here today as the prime minister of a country emerging finally from dark ages of violence, aggression, corruption and greed . . . Well over a million Iraqis were murdered or are missing . . .''
Kerry didn't show up for Allawi's visit to Washington -- he was in Ohio again, which is evidently becoming the proverbial Vietnam-type quagmire for him. Nonetheless, barely had the prime minister finished than the absentee senator did a daytime version of his midnight ramble and barged his way onto the air to insist that he knew better than Iraq's head of government what was going on in the country. One question from his accompanying press corps was especially choice:
''Prime Minister Allawi told Congress today that democracy was taking hold in Iraq and that the terrorists there were on the defensive. Is he living in the same fantasyland as the president?''

Read the whole thing of course. Kerry has a instilled as a central part of his campaign the ability to form a coalition to assist us in Iraq and in the wider war on terror. In the past year he has disrespected Australia, Italy, Poland, Bulgaria, and now the new leader of Iraq. France has already made clear that even with Kerry in office, they still aren't going to send us assistance in Baghdad. Who is left to piss off Mr. Kerry?

Of course, Kerry is just parroting the French opinion.