Catherine Mayer, our Swampland correspondent in London, reports to us that they are at it again:
If there’s one lesson Robert Gibbs might draw from British politics, it’s that people doing his sort of job should guard against flamboyance. Tony Blair’s communications chief Alastair Campbell stepped back from a frontline press role, and then stepped down altogether, when he became the story rather than the messenger. Recently Gordon Brown’s fiery spokesman, Damian McBride, was first relegated to a back-room position and then ousted for making the news rather than sculpting it.
Today, for the second time in a week, Gibbs is making the news in Britain. Asked at a White House briefing yesterday if POTUS thought Britain’s monarch should attend this weekend’s D-Day commemorations in Normandy, Gibbs said: “He does. We are working with those involved to see if we can make that happen.” The response caused consternation in Downing Street, which has been under sustained fire from the British press, led by the mass market Daily Mail, for failing to ensure that the French included the Queen in their plans. Buckingham Palace protocol demands that Her Maj receives a formal invitation before traveling to a foreign country. Gordon Brown has insisted that if the Queen wishes to attend, he’ll sort her out an invitation. Gibbs’s intervention seemed to suggest that the Prime Minister was too impotent to deliver on his promise without White House help. “The move is a major embarrassment for Gordon Brown, who is due to represent Britain instead of the Queen after Buckingham Palace failed to receive an official invitation from French officials,” opined the Daily Mail.
It now seems likely that hasty arrangements will be made to ensure the Queen’s presence in Normandy.* Obama may take some credit. Gibbs won’t, at least not in the U.K. A bemused Buckingham Palace source confirms that the White House had no contact with the Palace before Gibbs made his statement. Downing Street was also taken completely unawares. Gibbs shouldn’t be surprised if the British media seem eager to publicize this gaffe. Last week, after denying Daily Telegraph reports about photos showing prisoner abuses at Abu Ghraib, Gibbs took a colorful swipe at Britain’s national newspapers. “I will speak generally about some reports I’ve witnessed over the past few years in the British media, and in some ways I’m surprised [the Telegraph’s Abu Ghraib story] filtered down,” he said. “Let’s just say if I wanted to look up — if I wanted to read a write-up today of how Manchester United fared last night in the Champion’s League Cup, I might open up a British newspaper. If I was looking for something that bordered on truthful news, I’m not entirely sure it would be the first stack of clips I picked up.” He rammed home the point. “Again, I think if you do an even moderate Google search, you’re not going to find many of these newspapers and truth within, say, 25 words of each other.” It’s all good knockabout stuff – and much too entertaining for a spokesman.
UPDATE:* Catherine now reports:
Hasty arrangements have been made to ensure a royal presence in Normandy – Prince Charles will attend.