Who's Running This Show, Anyway?

Here's a funny little story. It seems that Howard's staffers in the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet (PM&C) told Bush's minders that Kevin Rudd didn't want TV cameras to cover his meeting with Bush today. The PM's office denies any such meddling:

A PM&C spokesman said that was done at the request of the White House.

"They are the hosts and they are running this," he said.

EH??? How's that work? Bush comes to Australia, but still gets to determine protocols because he is the "host"?

Rudd and Bush had a 45 minute chat, but it is off the record. Why? Because Bush wanted it that way:

Mr Rudd says he was not concerned about the request from Mr Bush to keep details of their discussions "off the record".

"The President was the host of the discussions - I regard that as normal diplomatic discourse," he said.

Well, at least we all know where we stand with regard to the US Sheriff-Deputy Alliance. But if Howard gets cameras into his meeting with Bush and Howard doesn't, that is either inappropriate election shenanigans from the Libs, or further inappropriate US intrusion on the Australian political landscape.

UPDATE: Sure enough, the TV images of Rudd meeting Bush were rather odd-looking stills. Rudd has just been screwed by either Bush, or Howard, or both.