Here's how NYTimes Jim Rutenberg quotes Bush in his overheard conversation with Blair:
“I feel like telling Kofi to get on the phone with Assad and make something happen,” he said to Mr. Blair, referring to Syria’s president, Bashir Assad.
A transcript featured on Adam Boulton's blog
http://adamboulton.typepad.com/my_weblog/2006/07/bush_blair_unpl.html
gives a slightly different version:
Bush: I felt like telling Kofi to call, to get on the phone to Bashad [Bashir Assad](9a and make something happen
Blair: Yeah
"Bashad"?!? If he really said that, am I pedantic for being bothered by the NYT's word cosmetics aimed at sparing Bush additional embarrassment? Shouldn't the public know that Bush obviously doesn't know the name of one of the key players in the region? Or is it just his "funny" nick name for the guy? Bhagdad, bashad, whatever.
It takes some real journalistic effort to make that exchange between Bush and Blair sound like more than an exchange on Jerry Springer, as someone on Boulton's blog called it. "Yo Blair, how are you doing."
These people rule the world. Wow.
Much of the initial coverage about Fort Hood turned out to be wrong. Is there anything wrong with that?
The accountability imposed by another country for the CIA's kidnapping and torture reveals much about our own.
Fox News' morning show plays to type, talking about whether Muslims in the Army should face "special debriefings"
The survivor and author is upset about comparisons some on the right are making to genocide
Once seen as a lunatic fringe, reactionary anti-women groups are courting respectability
Salon headlines in your mailbox