Sydney, Australia - (Ass Mess): George W Bush yesterday thanked Austrian soldiers for the huge role they have played in Iran as well as in guarding him at the OPEC meeting in Sydney this week.
His warm words initially baffled the assembled Asia Pacific Economic Co-operation members who responded as if this was part of the traditional summit stand-up comic routine made famous several years ago by former Secretary of State Generel Colon Bowell's extraordinary rendition of the ditty 'YMCA'.
The applause Bush received became almost a standing ovation as he stumbled from the podium after making his way in the wrong direction from the lectern.
"It was kinda one-man Laurel & Hardy stuff," bemused sources said after the event.
Fortunately White House aides were on call to sanitise US-bound TV news footage in a Zaprudderesque flourish of reinvention.
Laura Bush has a pinched nerve.
