Who You Callin' A Moron?

A three-word comment attributed to an aide to Prime Minister Jean Chretien dominated Canadian news reports Friday, with newspapers and broadcasts leading with the story of how she reportedly called President Bush a moron.

"What a moron," is the quote attributed to Francoise Ducros, Chretien's communications director, who reportedly was talking to a reporter about Bush in a private conversation this week at the NATO summit in Prague, the Czech capital.

Other reporters who say they overheard the comment wrote about it in newspapers published Thursday, and opposition members in Parliament called for her resignation later in the day.

Chretien, at his closing news conference Friday in Prague, said Ducros offered her resignation because of the furor but that he rejected it. He also said she told him she was unsure if she made the remark but acknowledged she uses the word "moron" frequently.

"She may have used that word against me a few times and I am sure she used it against you many times," Chretien told journalists, adding that "we don't live in as civilized a world as we used to, where private conversations are private."

Chretien said he received no official complaints from U.S. officials at the summit and that the issue caused no damage to Canadian-U.S. relations.

On Thursday, when first asked about the reported comment, Chretien said Mr. Bush was "not a moron at all, he's a friend. My personal relations with the president are extremely good."

This is not the first time a foreign government official has gotten in trouble over a comment about the president.

In September, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder apologized to Mr. Bush for the offense caused by reports that his justice minister had compared Bush's methods to Hitler's.

The regional newspaper the Schwaebisches Tagblatt had reported that Justice Minister Herta Daeubler-Gmelin, while speaking about U.S. threats toward Iraq, told a small group of labor members: "Bush wants to distract attention from his domestic problems. That's a popular method. Even Hitler did that."

She denied making the remarks, but the paper stood by the report.

Schroeder, who has sparred with Washington over his outspoken opposition to war against Iraq, said he could not imagine Daeubler-Gmelin had meant to liken Mr. Bush to Hitler.

White House spokesman Ari Fleischer had described the reported statement as "outrageous and inexplicable."