About Those German Relations ...

Big Guy sat down briefly with German Chancellor Angela Merkel earlier today to discuss holding bilateral talks later this year.

It was a bit awkward. Merkel was embarrassed at the way we in the Obama campaign got tight with the Social Democrat Party during our presidential race, and how we used the SPDs to get our speaking gig in Berlin last summer. To make matters worse for us, it looks like Merkel is about to kick the SPD's heiny in the upcoming national elections, making the party we sucked up to inconsequential, and thus harming relations with our strongest ally on the continent. Oh, well, live and learn.

We understood the strained nature of the relationship before we went into the meeting, so we knew that we couldn't offer up Biden for the bi-lats, because, well, we all know how that would work out. So Secretary of State Dick Holbrooke and his aide, Hillary, suggested that Big Guy send Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi to lead the bilateral talks.

That idea didn't go over well, either. Merkel said the Italians have been sending their trash to Germany for years, and that Germany didn't the U.S. doing the same with our Italian tra-, er, leaders.