Is ass-kissing any way to talk at a holy site?

Somehow, it seemed so natural that after Mitt Romney stumbled  through the first two stops   of his foreign tour,  one of his aides would upstage him in Poland with the most clarity  anyone has gotten from his camp to this moment.  Resorting to an old idiomatic expression  that leaves no one guessing,  Romney aide Rick Gorka invited a reporter to "Kiss my ass".

Well, now.  The challenge was issued as a frustrated Gorka  was calling for respect - as in "Kiss my ass" - from reporters to honor a solemn moment at a holy site.  Moments later, Gorka huffed at another reporter: "Shove it."

As one who has seen more than one political aide lose it - just this morning a local pol accused me of kicking his ass - I would have thought that Gorka could have said it differently and with more panache.  I can only guess that Mitt, hopeful of maintaining a civilized tone while combing Warsaw for a souvenir pierogi,  took his aide  aside in a quiet room and advised him, "Son, that's not the language I would have used".

The ass-kissing moment did, however,  detract  from the catcalls Romney has generated for praising Israel's health- care system - a health-care success story, he asserted - for a nation with the 4th best life expectancy.


Does this fellow really not know that Israel has had a socialistic health care system since  1948 and anchored into law as a government mandate in 1995?


Really, folks, does he know anything at all?  Or did his Israeli contributors  succeed in brainwashing him, that memorable word from his father?  We're only sorry that the guided tour didn't include 50 more countries.

Is Mitt going 3 for 3 to earn hockey's hat trick?

Mitt Romney's travelogue to three overseas cities was intended to demonstrate his keen understanding of foreign policy among friends - in contrast to that ill-suited president in the White House from Chicago or wherever.

So he began by insulting the Brits while in London and then following up by pouring gasoline on the Palestinians with insensitive remarks at a fund-raiser in Jerusalem that included the Midas-like casino owner Sheldon Adelson.  It may have played well  as his Jewish breakfast hosts reached for their wallets, but it was a translated as "racist" and "offensive" by a  senior aide to President  Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority.   How's that for well-considered diplomatic moves to bring the
 two sides together in the smoldering region? Pandering that trumps diplomacy?

As Romney arrived in Poland, we awaited  his comment that he can see two kielbasa shops from  his front porch. Once  upon a time, a contemporary historian reflecting on Pope Leo X's love of the arts, observed that he would have made a "perfect pope if he had even the slightest knowledge of religion."

Is that what would accompany Mitt 's "diplomacy" to the Oval Office?