Is this thing on?

[Jay]

This made me lol irl.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2006 ... OE=NEWISVA

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia — President Bush got bit again Monday by the open-microphone bug.
Apparently unaware that his words were being broadcast, Bush offered an unvarnished assessment of Syria's alleged support for Hezbollah's attacks on Israel.

He also criticized United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan, teased British Prime Minister Tony Blair about a sweater he recently gave the president, and joked about the long-windedness of some unnamed world leaders.

His comments of nearly four minutes were heard live at the end of the annual Group of Eight (G8) summit of industrialized nations.

MEDIA SPLIT ON SLIP: Expletive not deleted by everyone

Bush "used an expletive to express his view. That's the way plain folks talk and probably will play pretty well in the heartland and beyond," said Roderick Hart, a University of Texas communications and government professor.

"That image of being a plain talker is part of the problem he has internationally, where the issues are far more nuanced," Hart said. "Internationally, he is not seen a man of great nuance and complexity."

White House press secretary Tony Snow played down the incident. "His reaction first was, what did it say," Snow said when asked about Bush's comments. "So we showed him the transcript. Then he rolled his eyes and laughed."

It's not the first incident of Bush's candor. During the 2000 campaign, he referred to Adam Clymer, then a New York Times reporter, as a "major league a———."

On Monday, as Bush was returning from Russia, morning radio stations in the USA replayed his line about the growing violence in the Middle East. "What they need to do is get Syria to get Hezbollah to stop doing this s—-, and it's over," Bush was caught saying to Blair.

Bush also could be heard questioning Annan's diplomatic strategy and suggesting that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice would soon be traveling to the Middle East.

He teased Blair about the sweater he received, joking the prime minister must have "picked it out yourself." Bush said he wouldn't speak long at Monday's summit meetings, unlike some of the other world leaders. "I'm not going to talk too damn long like the rest of them. Some of these guys talk too long."

Blair eventually shut off Bush's microphone. Asked later about what happened, Blair joked that it was "all about transparent government." He then tapped the microphone in front of him.

Wayne Fields, a political scientist at Washington University in St. Louis, said Bush is unlikely to take heat at home for his remarks.

"His informal persona gets a lot of slack," Fields said. "The public has a general sense that these are informal moments and doesn't attach a lot of importance to them. It may be more troubling to the rest of the world, but I doubt it."

Bush isn't the only president to be caught by a live microphone. President Clinton in 1993 once was heard cursing at an aide, while President Reagan joked before a 1984 radio address that the United States was about to bomb what was then the Soviet Union.

Bush's candor capped a G8 summit dominated by the latest wave of violence in the Middle East. Members agreed Sunday on a statement calling on Hezbollah to stop shelling Israel and return captured soldiers; Israel would then suspend military operations.

Publicly, Bush praised his G8 colleagues Monday for addressing the "root causes of the conflict," defining it as "terrorist activity." He singled out Hezbollah, saying it is "housed and encouraged by Syria" and "financed by Iran."

Posted 7/17/2006 7:48 AM ET