Labor slams PM (Howard) over Bush support [View All]

[rooboy]

Prime Minister John Howard should "shut up" and curb his public support for President George W Bush ahead of the United States election, the federal opposition said.

An adviser to US Democratic presidential challenger John Kerry has criticised Mr Howard's vocal support for Mr Bush's re-election as "inappropriate".

Mr Howard last week said he hoped Mr Bush wins the election.

Labor's foreign affairs spokesman Kevin Rudd said Mr Howard's statement was inappropriate and should be corrected.

"John Howard should have more diplomatic commonsense than to comment publicly on who should or should not win a US presidential election," Mr Rudd told journalists in Brisbane.

"The key thing for any prime minister or foreign minister of Australia is basically to shut up when it comes to providing public commentary on who they think should win foreign elections.

"It is just not in Australia's national interests and in John Howard's case, reflects high levels of arrogance."

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/11/01/1099262766239.html