Heh.  A scandal with a built-in "gate" in it's name :-)

BTW, Greg, the blockquote needs fixing.

It may be worth noticing again that Angela Markel can not make any decision on this. The decision to allow depends on the mayor of Berlin. I believe that the mayor of Berlin has already welcome Barrack Obama.

I think the republicans are just scared about this trip.

who IS the mayor of berlin and what
is mayor's political relationship
to markel?

Funny, I didn't know that one could be overly-eager to see the end of the Bush malAdministration.

Klaus Wowereit is the mayor of Berlin. He is a member of the SPD

The story is being covered by Der Spiegel. You can go the link for the entire article.

https://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,564805,00.html

You just need to copy the link

Many Germans want to get to know him," Ruprecht Polenz, chair of the foreign relations committee in the German parliament, told SPIEGEL ONLINE. "It's not just politicians, but the broader public. When the best possibility for that to happen is at this place, then I have no problem with it," he said, referring to the Brandenburg Gate site.
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Polenz's comments come a day after a number of other German politicians came out in favor of allowing the Obama event, reportedly scheduled for July 24. Berlin Mayor Klaus Wowereit said he would love to see the candidate hold a major trans-Atlantic speech in the heart of Berlin. "We will prepare a warm welcome for him and will undertake all measures necessary so that he can deliver his message in Berlin," Wowereit said on German television.

"It would be nice if the German government would focus on strengthening its contacts to us rather than already beginning to look for our successors."

Hilarious! This sounds like an embittered ex-boy/girlfriend. How dare (s)he move on already?!?! Why my side of the bed is still warm!

Guess what, Repubs? Your days are numbered...

block quote still needs something: delete double quotation marks at end.

Jesus - this is one of the craziest dust-ups I've ever heard of.

God Bush is an asshole - And Merkel must have liked that shoulder rub a whole lot if they're letting Bush get away with this.

Seriously, it'll be interesting to see how this plays out in Germany.

Will they want to avoid pissing off Dubya & Co, even though he won't be here to kick around much longer?  Will they want to avoid pissing off McSame, just in case he beats Obama?  And what about pissing off Obama?

Then, of course, there's the tension between the factions within the German federal government, and between the feds and the mayor of Berlin.  Can they bring enough political pressure on him to make him cave?

Just a little tempest in a teapot for our continued entertainment.  Fodder for the summer news doldrums.

Please note that Angela Markel has no authority over the mayor of Berlin. The security would be handle by Berlin and its mayor not by the German government.

Senator Obama is indeed very popular in Europe. there was a poll conducted in German where Obama would get over 80% of the votes while McSameBush would get 11%...

Wow, either way it goes will be bad for them . . .

I am not sure that Senator Obama being treated like a rock star in Germany is necessarily a good thing for his campaign. I appreciate that he wants to build up his international bona fides, but public photo ops with foreign leaders and American forces abroad will be much more effective and less likely to incur a backlash among the uncommitted voters that Senator Obama needs to reach out to. At best these uncommitted voters, especially blue color voters, who never had the fiscal means to go backpacking in Europe are unlikely to be impressed by such rock star treatment and at worst turned off. Recall that the Obama campaign is already sensitive to holding too many such rallies in the United States.

Before you cast me out as a troll, understand that I remain a huge supporter of Obama and have very much enjoyed the three mass Obama rallies that I attended, including the one at the Excel Center in Saint Paul. I am just concerned that what might look very appealing to the choir may not look so good to the unconverted.

Furthermore, any indication that Berlin is over-eager to see the end of the Bush administration is not likely to play well in Washington.

Well, we sure wouldn't want to risk making any inside-the-Beltway types upset, now would we? After all, they are so very popular with the American public!

Seriously, the question of speech or no-speech in front of the Brandenburg Gate comes down to how well the Obama campaign can handle the media spin. As long as the media outlets don't get a chance to make this into another "Obama - elitist?" episode, I see little downside to the exercise.

If the Germans are all up for seeing Obama speak at Brandenburg, why should he deny them? It's their choice for gods sake!

Get real! EVERYONE in the world is eager to see the end of the Bush administration. What's wrong with admitting that??

I agree with Minnesota voter: there are millions of Americans who think that being popular in Europe is a reason to vote against you. Obama indeed knows enough to handle this very carefully -- but the result may be a speech that talks about American interests as much as it does about American values, and about the threat of Iran as much as it does the hope of change.

The best parts of Obama's foreign policy message -- the ones that talk about soft power and aim to undercut the Bush administration -- are the ones that are most difficult to deliver in a foreign setting. The most troubling parts of Obama's foreign policy message -- the ones that seek to underline his toughness -- are the ones that will be seen at home as Obama's foreign policy "Sister Souljah" moment.

In short, don't overestimate how much you're going to like what the man actually says, wherever he ultimately gets to say it.

What is particularly galling about Kimmitt's remark that

It would be nice if the German government would focus on strengthening its contacts to us rather than already beginning to look for our successors

is that, in 2003, when Angela Merkel was leader of the German opposition, and much more receptive to Bush administration international policies than Gerhard Schröder (who was then Chancellor), the Bush administration gave her the "royal treatment" on a visit to Washington. This is from Todd Purdum's article about it in the New York Times (Feb. 26, 2003):

It is not every foreign leader who, in 48 whirlwind hours in Washington, gets to meet with the vice president, the secretary of defense, the national security adviser, the deputy secretary of state, the United States trade representative, influential senators and the chairman of the Federal Reserve.

When the visitor is leader of her country's opposition party, such treatment is all but unheard of. But that was the schedule today and Monday of Angela Merkel, the head of Germany's conservative Christian Democratic Union, minority leader of the German Parliament and perhaps the Bush administration's favorite official these days in what Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld described as ''old Europe.''