Does Bush know where Washington DC is? A DAMAGING leak of a confidential conversation between Kevin Rudd and George Bush was "dripping" with the Prime Minister's DNA, Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull declared yesterday.
For the second day running in Parliament, Mr Rudd declined to deny he or his staff had leaked details to The Australian. Mr Rudd also failed to speak in the debate when the Opposition tried unsuccessfully to move a censure against him, instead leaving Foreign Minister Stephen Smith to carry the reply. The leak, which boosted Mr Rudd's role and made President Bush look ignorant, has infuriated the White House and continues to embarrass the PM as he prepares to fly to the weekend G20 meeting in Washington. In the leaked October 10 phone conversation Mr Rudd urged Mr Bush to call the meeting of the G20 on the financial crisis. Both the White House and Mr Rudd have denied the report's assertion that President Bush asked "What's the G20?" Mr Turnbull said the Opposition had given Mr Rudd every opportunity to deny responsibility for the leak. "He has failed to do so. There has never been a more serial or more eloquent plea of guilty heard than the Prime Minister's on this charge of leaking the conversation with the US President." Mr Rudd has been promoting to the G20 countries a plan for extensive changes to the international financial system to prevent future crises. It involves transparency, a requirement for institutions to build capital buffers in good times, better accounting rules and more international monitoring. Future regulation would deal with executive remuneration, among other issues. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups. For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum * Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/ * It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls. * Read the latest breaking news, and more. -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
