The Washington Post is reporting that George Bush called Afgan President Karzai to apologize for the way the Senate treated him. Apparently Karzai was miffed that instead of a private get together, the Senate Foreign Relations committee gave him the full hearing treatment. While I somehow managed to miss Karzai’s appearance, I have seen other hearings and generally I wish the person in the dock would give the Senators what for. The Senators resort to the Potter trick – they sit way up high behind a big impressive desk, and the interrogated get a little chair behind a table. The Senators like to thunder and fulminate, bully and intimidate, ask questions that are really speaches, and what ticks me off the most, they don’t bother to listen when it’s another Senator’s turn. So the person has to answer the same stupid stuff over and over, in a display of uncommon discourtesy.
It has to weigh on Karzai, and Afganistan as a whole, that they are clients of the United States. For the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to put him through the ringer like that only reinforces the notion. Should Karzai be accountable? Sure, but would the Senate treat Jacques Chirac in the same manner? No, they’d be respectful, and polite, face-to-face anyway, as it should be. Once again, foreign affairs takes a back seat to domestic politics.
