Chirac leaps to PM's aid on 'moron' flap
LOUISE ELLIOTT CANADIAN PRESS PARIS (CP)
A furious French President Jacques Chirac shielded Prime Minister Jean Chretien from questions about a scandal surrounding his communications director Saturday, saying the subject had no place at an international meeting on aid to Lebanon.
"We are in France," Chirac said sharply to a reporter during a news conference at L'Elysee, his palatial home. "We are not here to discuss Canadian domestic issues."
Chirac glared at the Canadian reporter, covered Chretien's microphone with his hand and quickly moved to another question from the floor.
The scandal had already inflamed passions in the United States, with conservative pundits fuming after Chretien said he'd decided not to fire his aide, Francoise Ducros, for calling U.S. President George W. Bush "a moron."
Commentator and failed presidential candidate Pat Buchanan called Canadians "spoiled brats of the new world order" on Friday, and Sean Hannity, best-selling author and rabid defender of Bush on his daily radio and Fox television programs, said Chretien was "obviously a leftist."
The story has also drawn European attention, appearing on the BBC World News as well as in papers such as Le Figaro in France. Major U.S. papers also touched on it, with the New York Times and the Washington Post devoting a few paragraphs of their NATO coverage to it.
Some coverage in the U.S. was complimentary, with one former Clinton aide calling Ducros' candour "refreshing."
Opposition members howled Friday that Chretien's decision to keep Ducros on staff signalled nothing but woe for already shaky relations between the Bush administration and a Liberal government in Ottawa that some see as anti-American.
Critics said Chretien was putting blind loyalty ahead of important bilateral issues.
"Keeping Francie Ducros, the person who calls the president of the United States a moron, keeping her in place, refusing her resignation, puts personal interests above Canada's interests," said Tory Leader Joe Clark.
In Paris today, Ducros said she had no comment to make about the story or its developments.
She added she had no remarks to make "on background" either. She appeared cheerful as she facilitated a background briefing on Canada's contribution to Lebanon.
She released a statement Friday apologizing for drawing negative media attention to the president, but added she had no recollection of making the remark.
Throughout the news conference with Chirac, Chretien stared glumly at a row of Canadian reporters.
After refusing to allow Chretien a chance to respond to the question, Chirac leaned away from the microphone, turned to Chretien and whispered a few words into his ear.
In defending his decision not to fire Ducros on Friday in Prague, Chretien said the remark had not harmed Canada-U.S. relations. He also said the comment had been taken out of context by one journalist who had overheard a private conversation.
Robert Fife, the reporter who recorded the remark Thursday in the National Post, said it was made publicly to another reporter in a briefing room. He said Ducros was referring to Bush's decision to use the NATO forum to push countries to offer military support for a war in Iraq.