嬉しそうな各紙

　新聞だけではなくて、テレビでもラジオでもニュースはこの話題をおもしろがって取り上げていて、たった10分しかオバマ大統領と直接話す時間がなかった鳩山由紀夫首相は「こぉ〜んなに軽くしか扱われなかったんだぜ！こんな首相で良いのかねぇ〜！」とどんどん焚きつけている。

• （msn産経ニュース 2010.4.15 01:07）【ワシントン＝佐々木類】米紙ワシントン・ポストは14日付で、核安全保障サミットで最大の敗者は日本の鳩山由紀夫首相だと報じた。
• （日経新聞WEB版 2010/4/15 11:07 ）【ワシントン＝大石格】「最大の敗者は鳩山由紀夫首相」「不運で愚かさを増している」——。14日付の米紙ワシントン・ポストは核安全保障サミットに出席した世界の首脳を品評するコラムを掲載し、鳩山首相の立ち回りを酷評した。（中略）「恐らく夕食会のメーン料理とデザートの間に、慰めとして非公式会談をしてもらった」と笑いものにした。
• （2010年4月15日11時12分 読売新聞）【ワシントン＝小川聡】14日付の米ワシントン・ポスト紙は人気コラムの中で、13日に終わった核安全サミットに出席した36人の各国首脳たちがオバマ米大統領との近さを競い合ったとしたうえで、「このショーの最大の敗北者は断然、哀れでますますいかれた（hapless and increasingly loopy）日本の鳩山由紀夫首相だった」と鳩山首相を酷評した。
• （時事ドットコム　2010/04/15-10:42）【ワシントン時事】14日付の米紙ワシントン・ポストは、先の核安全保障サミットの際に最も存在感を示せたのは中国の胡錦濤国家主席で、「最大の敗者は迷走続きの鳩山由紀夫首相だ」と論評する記事を掲載した。（中略）首相に「ああ、ユキオ、あなたは同盟国（の首相）のはずじゃないか」と呼び掛け、米国が「核の傘」を提供していることなどを思い起こすよう求めた。
• （Asahi.com 2010年4月15日10時39分）【ワシントン＝伊藤宏】米紙ワシントン・ポストは14日付のコラムで、12,13両日にワシントンで開かれた核保安サミットに出席した各国首脳を論評し、その中でオバマ米大統領と公式の首脳会談を行えなかった鳩山由紀夫首相を「間違いなく最大の敗者」と皮肉った。（中略）首相に対し「ユキオ、同盟国のはずだろう。米国の核の傘で何十億ドルも節約しているだろう」と皮肉を込めて呼びかけた。

【追記】やっぱりこの人が書くとこうなるのね、という面白い記事。→　こちら。

　ここまで来たんだから、じゃ、そのコラムってのはなんだよという話だ。中にはコラムだってことも書いてなくて、あたかもワシントン・ポストが本当に真っ正面から同盟国の首相をこんな言葉を使って表現したと報じている（あ、上記の中では桜チャンネル産経新聞と時事通信か）のもいる。
　なお、「ワシントン・ポストは統一教会系だ」と書いている人もいるけれど、それは「ワシントン・タイムス」の間違いだと思う。
　ではワシントン・ポストから訴えられちゃうかもしれないけれど、そのコラム、「In The Loop by Al Kamen　4月14日付」を載っけちゃう。核セキュリティ・サミットに関する部分だけで良いのかもしれないけれど、全部掲載してしまえばニュアンスもおわかりいただけるかも。ちなみに彼は毎日書いているわけではない。

Among leaders at summit, Hu's first
By Al Kamen Wednesday, April 14, 2010

After all the chatter about nukes, loose and otherwise, 36 heads of state are heading home from Washington to tout their world leadership chops and their influence with the Obama administration.

The winners at this week's nuclear summit were easily identified: They were the ones who got bilats with President Obama -- not a bodybuilding term, it stands for bilateral, or one-on-one, chat -- showing their prestige and importance. Chinese President Hu Jintao obviously heads the list, having chatted with Obama for 90 minutes. (And what is with this bowing business? Okay, so Obama's a natural bower. And Hu owns the U.S. economy. But really.)

The other winners include King Abdullah II of Jordan, Prime Minister Najib Razak of Malaysia, President Viktor Yanukovich of Ukraine and President Serzh Sargsian of Armenia, all of whom got a private meet, as did acting Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan, here because the elected president is gravely ill, who got a meeting with Obama on Sunday.

Included in the winner group is Ahmed Aboul Gheit of Egypt, who is not really a world leader but only a foreign minister.

By far the biggest loser of the extravaganza was the hapless and (in the opinion of some Obama administration officials) increasingly loopy Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama. He reportedly requested but got no bilat. The only consolation prize was that he got an "unofficial" meeting during Monday night's working dinner. Maybe somewhere between the main course and dessert?

A rich man's son, Hatoyama has impressed Obama administration officials with his unreliability on a major issue dividing Japan and the United States: the future of a Marine Corps air station in Okinawa. Hatoyama promised Obama twice that he'd solve the issue. According to a long-standing agreement with Japan, the Futenma air base is supposed to be moved to an isolated part of Okinawa. (It now sits in the middle of a city of more than 80,000.)

But Hatoyama's party, the Democratic Party of Japan, said it wanted to reexamine the agreement and to propose a different plan. It is supposed to do that by May. So far, nothing has come in over the transom. Uh, Yukio, you're supposed to be an ally, remember? Saved you countless billions with that expensive U.S. nuclear umbrella? Still buy Toyotas and such?

Meanwhile, who did give Hatoyama some love at the nuclear summit? Hu did. Yes, China's president met privately with the Japanese prime minister on Monday.

Czech? Check.
The last great open embassy job -- we're speaking here of the exquisite ambassadorial residence in beautiful Prague -- goes to Obama's law school pal, mega-bundler and White House ethics czar Norm Eisen. Eisen is a Washington lawyer and founder of the government watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.

Eisen, whose parents were Holocaust survivors -- his mother came from Czechoslovakia and his father from Poland -- was part of the group that accompanied Obama to Prague on Thursday for the signing of a new nuclear arms reduction treaty with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.

The next day, Obama met with Czech President Vaclav Klaus, and the Czech media reported that Washington had "officially proposed its new ambassador to the Czech Republic," naming Eisen as the pick.

The embassy has been leaderless for the last 15 months because the first pick, former Broadcasting Board of Governors chairman Marc Nathanson, apparently ran into some vetting difficulties. Vetting is overseen by the White House counsel's office, where Eisen is counsel for ethics. Unclear who's going to vet Eisen's nomination.

Judge not
The White House is upset about an item last week pointing out that Obama has a decent shot at nominating, and putting the robes on, the fewest federal judges in recent administrations. "The President has nominated more appellate judicial candidates than Clinton had at this point in his presidency (18 to 12)," an e-mail said, and "has had as many circuit judges confirmed as Bush did at this point," and substantially more than Clinton had gotten confirmed. Omitting this was a "glaring oversight."

Well, we'll update the numbers later this year and try to avoid the glare.

The art of diplomacy
Also last week, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano were in Madrid, heading the U.S. delegation to an important meeting with the Euros about tracking terrorists' financing systems. Holder went on to Algiers, to sign an agreement whereby Algeria would cooperate with the United States on prosecuting money laundering, cybercrime and terrorist financing.

While in Madrid, word is, Holder arranged to have a museum, apparently the Reina Sofia, opened so he could see it, even though it was closed at the desired time -- and then he didn't show. He managed to slip away from a meeting early to hit the museum, home to Picasso's extraordinary Guernica and some great stuff by Miró, Dalí, Gris and others.

Some BBG progress
And getting back to the Broadcasting Board of Governors, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Tuesday approved three Democrats and three Republicans to run U.S. overseas broadcasting units such as the Voice of America and Radio Free Europe.

By unanimous voice vote, the committee sent the nominations of Walter Isaacson as chairman, and Dennis Mulhaupt, Victor H. Ashe, Michael Lynton, S. Enders Wimbush and Susan McCue as members, to the Senate floor.

But it held on to two of the eight hostages nominated five months ago. Democrat Michael Meehan and Republican Dana Perino still await committee action.

Research editor Alice Crites contributed to this column.