Bush Embarrases Himself in Front of England.
WASHINGTON: Presidents come and go, but for more than half a century, the queen has always been the queen.
So it was perhaps no surprise that Washington went a little gaga Monday, as Queen Elizabeth II and her husband, Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, began an official two-day visit to the U.S. capital.
Across the Atlantic, Helen Mirren, who won an Academy Award for her portrayal of Elizabeth in "The Queen," shocked the British conscience over the weekend by turning down an invitation to dine at Buckingham Palace.
But on the other side of the Atlantic, the queen was making Americans go weak in the knees.
The White House was decorated to perfection for an exclusive white-tie dinner on Monday evening, with President George W. Bush and the first lady, Laura Bush, playing host to the royal couple and 130 other A-list guests. But the morning was reserved for the masses - or, at least, the masses with the kind of connections that warrant an invitation to the formal arrival ceremony on the South Lawn.
Lucky ticket-holders - more than 7,000 of them - began lining up at 7 a.m. to get in: women in fine hats carrying floral bouquets, little girls in chiffon dresses, boys and men in their best suits, toting cameras and craning their necks for a glimpse of what one called "the real deal."
Joy Green, whose daughter had tickets by virtue of her job at the Justice Department, flew in from Selma, Alabama, for the occasion. "I think we love it that they have a queen," she said, explaining the American fascination, "and we're glad that we don't."
At 10:56 a.m., six minutes past schedule, she arrived, a small woman in a black and white hat, white gloves, a white jacket and black skirt. Drums rolled and trumpets blared. There was a gasp in the crowd, and a squeal: "I see her! I see the queen!"
It was a day for pomp and circumstance - a military color guard, a fife and drum band in white wigs, red jackets and tri-cornered hats - punctuated by a presidential slip of the tongue that lightened the moment during Bush's welcoming remarks. Bush reminded the 81-year-old queen that she had already dined with 10 American presidents.
"You helped our nation celebrate its bicentennial in 17- " he went on, stopping to correct himself before 1776 could slip out. The crowd erupted in laughter, and the president and the queen turned to each other for a long, silent gaze. Then, Bush turned back to the crowd with an explanation.
"She gave me a look," he said, "that only a mother could give a child."
Bush had been the recipient of such a look once before in the queen's presence - from his own mother, back in 1991, when the first President Bush and his wife played host to their own state dinner for the queen. By several different accounts, Barbara Bush told the queen that she had seated her son far away from Her Majesty, for fear he might make a wisecrack.
Then, to his mother's horror, he did, telling the queen that he was his family's black sheep and asking, "Who's yours?"
The queen, apparently not amused, replied tartly, "None of your business."
If the queen was not amused Monday, she did not show it. "I'm sure she accepted it for what it was - a slip of the tongue," said her press secretary, Penny Russell-Smith.
I saw the video, and Queen Elizabeth II took it really seriously. In fact, she seemed to be highly distrubed when he said that she gave him a look that only a mother can give a child... Really, Bush blew this one bad time, and it looks like he needs to either learn some more manners, or learn some more history.