Echoes of a Reagan romance
Katrina and Angela offer hope for a better relationship between the United States and Germany. Katrina, who was no lady, nevertheless prompted the German government to open its strategic oil reserves to the United States, and Angela Merkel, a fast friend of Washington, is on course, maybe, to succeed a spoiler of the German friendship with the United States.
William R. Timken Jr., the new American ambassador to Berlin, received a warm welcome when he arrived to take up his duties last week, delivering a letter from President Bush thanking the German people for their assistance in the wake of the storm that battered our Gulf Coast. Two planes of the Luftwaffe, loaded with food and medical supplies, were dispatched to New Orleans.
Ambassador Timken’s reception last week contrasted sharply with the roughing up he got in the German newspapers when his appointment was announced several months ago. Relations between the two governments have been less than warm for a long time. “In a way, the disastrous diversion was heaven sent for Timken,” observes der Spiegel, the German newsmagazine. “Many Teutonic eyebrows have been raised by the impression that Timken only got his job by being one of President George W. Bush’s many ‘Super Rangers,’ a somewhat hokey Bushism designating those who have raised at least $300,000 for the Grand Old Party.”