4thofeleven | One Last Gaffe Before the End

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd should apologise for trying to embarrass US President George W Bush by leaking details of a sensitive phone call between them, Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull says.

During the call, Mr Bush reportedly responded to Mr Rudd's suggestion of a G20 summit to deal with the crisis by saying: "What's the G20?"
US officials and Mr Rudd's office have since denied Mr Bush made any such remark.
Former foreign minister Alexander Downer has called for an investigation into the leak, saying it might damage Australia's alliance with the US. Mr Turnbull said an investigation could be avoided if Mr Rudd apologised for the "remarkable diplomatic gaffe".

- The Age

So look, this is ridiculous for a variety of reasons. Number one, if the leak was authorised by the government, the goal was clearly not to embarrass the United States, but rather to demonstrate that the United States president takes advice from our PM. Number two, Bush’s stunning ignorance on practically everything is hardly news. Number three, even if Bush holds a grudge, that’s not going to be relevant for much longer, since this sort of situation won’t occur again, unless the next US president turns out to also be a moron. Number four, a public apology is only going to draw more attention to this incident.

Besides, if Rudd and Bush are discussing what they plan on doing to deal with the financial crisis, I kinda feel the public has a right to know what they’re saying. If it was a leak of a personal conversation, that’s one thing – but this was a discussion conducted in their roles as representatives of the Australian and American people. Why should they expect it be kept private?

Anyway, if Bush is really worried that this is going to destroy his hard-earned reputation as someone who knows what the hell he’s doing, he can always just claim he said “What G20?” not “What’s the G20?”, and say he wasn’t sure if Rudd meant the G20 Industrialised Nations or the Group of 20 Developing Nations. If he can’t make that token effort to explain away his gaffe, then he shouldn’t expect anyone else to do his work for him and keep it quiet…