Gaffe-filled copy from Jeb’s ‘gaffe-free’ trip

It has been argued — and not without some evidence — that Politico, the Washington-focused news publication, exists mostly to justify to the Beltway-centric why political coverage should still center within the Beltway. It’s a “Talk of the Town” for the nation’s capitol; a near-instant “heat check” for the politicians, spokespeople and PR flaks to make sure the fourth estate is eating whatever hash officialdom has to sling.

But, note to the rest of the media: just because they serve it up, doesn’t mean you have to eat it — no less clean your plate.

Friday’s Politico treated the world to this headline: “Jeb’s gaffe-free European tour.” Under it, Politico reporter Eli Stokols declared the trip had “no news, no confrontations and, most of all, no gaffes,” followed by the apparently iron-clad observation that “Jeb Bush ... has thus far managed to accomplish something that many of his GOP rivals have not: He’s traveled abroad, given a speech, met with foreign government leaders and held two news briefings — all without a blunder.”

And who is to argue with Stokols? Clearly not the Los Angeles Times, which headlined, “Jeb Bush makes it through Europe unscathed,” and opined that the trip was “ripple-free” and showed Jeb “capable of striding without stumbling on a global stage.”

Clearly not the Wall Street Journal, which reported that, while in Europe, “Mr. Bush hasn’t drawn Obama-esque crowds, but, more importantly, he hasn’t had a Romney moment,” praising his “clear purpose.”

Certainly not the Washington Post’s “Right Turn” columnist Jennifer Rubin, who wrote the former Florida governor had “a gaffe-free, virtually flawless European trip,” under a banner that proclaimed “Jeb Bush’s successful overseas trip.”

And not even NPR’s Morning Edition, which itself called Jeb’s European vacation “gaffe-free” without attributing it to Politico or any other source in the windup to Mara Liasson’s mash note to the now officially declared presidential candidate’s Latin “roots.”

The circular, uh, appreciation caucus goes on, of course. It even did a full loop, with Politico basically citing itself for a next-day wrap on Jeb’s “gaffe-free, five-day jaunt” through Europe. And this would be merely tedious — maybe unremarkably so — if it weren’t for some noteworthy and very-much-noticeable ... um, what are they called again? ... ah, yes, gaffes during John Ellis Bush’s (yes, that’s where the “Jeb” comes from) tour.

The most obvious — so obvious that the Wall Street Journal had to mention it in its “clear purpose” story — was Bush’s meeting and photo-op with Radoslaw Sikorski, the one-time Polish foreign minister and just-resigned (“just” as in the day before Bush met with him) speaker of the parliament.

Sikorski was caught up with several other Polish government ministers in what has become known as “waitergate,” a scandal where private conversations were secretly recorded over $500 meals at one of Warsaw’s fanciest restaurants. Sikorski, for his part, was caught complaining that Poland’s relationship with the United States was “bullshit” and “worthless” before dropping his most famous observation. “We’ll get into a conflict with the Russians and the Germans, and we’ll think that everything is super because we gave the Americans a blow job,” he said. “Losers. Complete losers.”

When asked about whether it was a good idea to still take a meeting with Sikorski, the Bush team stressed that the event had been arranged long ago. A good follow-up question, however, might have been “How long ago?” For, while the now ex-minister, ex-speaker only stepped aside the day before Jeb met him, the revelations of diplomatic oral sex are now over a year old.

And Bush himself implied that Sikorski’s feelings for the U.S. were justified. “Maybe there's a degree of frustration that over the last few years we've kind of changed course as it relates to the deployment of the missile system, for example,” Jeb said.

“For example,” of course, means Bush is guessing. It wasn’t that he asked Sikorski why the Polish government was so frustrated with the U.S. In fact, to watch Jeb field questions on the scandal, it appears he was not aware of it — or at least the substance of it — before the press scrum.

That one gaffe, messy, a tad sordid and full of questionable choices by candidate and staff, naturally renders the Bush trip something decidedly less than “gaffe free,” but it was not the only oopsie for the 2016 hopeful.

Speaking in Berlin (before he even made it to Poland), Bush ad-libbed an assessment of Russia under Vladimir Putin. Jeb called Putin a “ruthless pragmatist” (which seemed like an attempt to split the difference between praising and criticizing the Russian leader ... because there actually is some tension in the GOP on this front) before saying NATO needs to push back, but not push too much because “ultimately Russia needs to be a European nation.”

“Everything we do,” Bush added, “ought to be to isolate [Russia’s] corrupt leadership from its people.”

“I think it was one of the most inane things that a candidate could run for,” observed Steve Clemons, Washington editor at large for The Atlantic, on MSNBC’s “The Last Word,” noting — correctly — “the Russian people feel enormous support for Vladimir Putin.” Clemons likened the remarks to telling Texans they are ultimately part of New England.

Bush also praised Germany, implying its opposition to Russian intervention in Ukraine has been more “resolute” than what the U.S. has pursued under President Barack Obama. That, too, qualifies as a gaffe, as most western European leaders, Germany’s Angela Merkel among them, have been much less interested in a Crimean showdown than the current U.S. foreign policy establishment (and practically all of the GOP) seems to be.

So, that’s at least three mistakes in four days. And, sure, depending on one’s point of view on Putin, the Ukraine and/or Polish pomposity, maybe they are not the stuff of microphone-shoving, flashbulb-popping headline news. But these are gaffes — ones fairly obvious to the casual observer in the U.S.; ones that should be more obvious to the members of the media assigned to cover Jeb’s “jaunt.”

It might not be as simple and sound-bitey as copying Politico, but it would actually make for better copy.