Bush begs for oil

How humiliating to have the President of the United States on his hands and knees pleading for mercy from Middle Eastern oil barons.

One hour after his plea for more Saudi oil was publicly rejected by the kingdom's oil minister, President Bush made a private visit to Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah to again ask him to open the spigots.

The White House revealed Bush's private meeting with the Saudi monarch to reporters aboard Air Force One as the president flew to Egypt on the next leg of his Mideast trip.

Earlier Tuesday, Bush had made his case for having OPEC, and particularly American ally Saudi Arabia, increase oil production as the price of gas hovers around $3 a gallon.

The Saudi oil minister, however, waited only a short time before announcing that oil prices would remain tied to market forces, a direct slap at Bush.

And King Abdullah apparently said "no" as well, only more obliquely.

Dana Perino tried hard to spin it as something other than a complete humiliation for Bush.

"The king says that he understands the situation. He's worried about high oil prices and how they can negatively affect economies around the world," Perino said aboard the presidential jetliner. "The president said there's a hope that as a result of these conversations that OPEC would be encouraged to authorize an increase production … to help deal with the tight supply problems in this time when we have growing economies across the world, especially in China."

The king says he understands the situation.

Well, isn't that nice? Way to go, Mr. President. You got the king of Saudi Arabia to "understand" that America needs more oil, as though he didn't already know that. Now, that's leadership!