Crossposted at Daily Kos and European Tribune
I just wanted to let everyone in on a little news tidbit that could be taken as both hysterically funny and tragically frightening, depending on how you want to look at it.
As I was taking a glance at the headlines in this morning’s online version of Rome’s daily “Il Messaggero” (the online version of the actual newspaper was not up yet, and would not be for another 2 hours), I found this little blurb amidst the sum-up of Bush’s day in Rome yesterday.
As could have been expected (also because before he arrived Berlusconi boasted that the “real” reason Dubya was coming to Italy was to see him), he obviously went to visit his pal Silvio (as we all know, first-name basis is de rigeur for International Dubya) and, after the one-hour visit, Berlusconi made a statement to the press.
While keeping most of the details of their talk “confidential” (which, in itself, makes me verrrry uneasy), there was one bit that was revealed. In the Messaggero‘s words:
Berlusconi ha rivelato solo un particolare: ha offerto al presidente Usa un posto da professore nella nascente università delle libertà che lui stesso sta fondando in Italia. Un invito – dice Berlusconi – che Bush ha immediatamente contraccambiato, chiedendo a Berlusconi di collaborare all’analoga fondazione che lui intende creare in Texas.
And my English translation:
Berlusconi disclosed just one detail: he offered the U.S. president a post as a professor in the nascent “university of freedoms” he is founding in Italy. An invitation, says Berlusconi, which Bush immediately returned, asking Berlusconi to collaborate in a similar foundation he intends to create in Texas.
(My emphasis added)
Yikes! Three short observations:
- Is Berlusconi out of his mind too? Bush teaching as a professor???
- A “University of Freedoms”? I hadn’t heard anything about this here yet.
- And Bush intends to create a “similar foundation” in Texas, to which he would invite Berlusconi to teach/lecture? I can just say one thing in Berlusconi’s favor here: he has always been a good businessman, unlike his friend Dubya, who ruins everything he touches, so he might have something (not necessarily honest, though) to teach in the Business Administration field. But if it’s for something related to politics, then heaven help us!
And how do you like the name of Berlusconi’s university? Sounds like something right out of the U.S. fundie-neocon playbook. But of course, Berluska has always called his center-right coalition “la Casa delle Libertà“, i.e. the House of Freedoms. As if to imply… you know… that the other side (the center-left) is not at all interested in your freedoms.
Personally, I can see only three possible explanations for this idea of Berlusconi’s:
- Birds of a feather flock together; so they evidently have a lot in common, after all.
- Berlusconi is dumber than he seems, since he obviously considers Bush an intellectual heavyweight.
- Berlusconi is really nothing more than a bootlicking Bush groupie and power-hungry emperor wannabe (who is also evidently blind to the fact that the tide is turning for his idol… which also brings us back to #2, since it implies a certain thick-skulledness).
So which is it? Actually, I find none of them particularly flattering or preferable, and personally I don’t think it’s case #1. What do you think?
