How to win fiends and influence, people!

NYTimes :

"The White House offered embarrassed apologies to Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi of Italy on Tuesday, after it had handed out an unflattering profile of him and his country’s politics.
Briefing notes that were given to reporters accompanying President Bush to the Group of 8 meeting in Japan described Mr. Berlusconi as one of the "most controversial leaders in the history of a country known for government corruption and vice."
"There was obviously a mistake and sloppy work," said Tony Fratto, a White House spokesman."

C'mon, Fratto, what's in the rest of Bush's briefing notes?

Angela Merkel : standoffish woman, doesn't much care for massages?

Steve Harper : fat bastard, oil minister and totally my bitch ?

This WH apology represents the most substantial statement I could find from the current G8 conference.

The 'shared vision', described by a Bush spokesperson as "substantial progress", by German Chancellor Angela Merkel as a "significant step forward", and by British Prime Minister Gordon Brown as "major progress", is exactly what "leaders of nearly 200 countries signed up to in the original UN climate change convention agreed at the 1992 Earth Summit."

Apparently the G8s are still waiting for leadership on climate change from the countries they have outsourced their economies to.