Gale a ‘Little Chop’ to Macho Bush

BRUSSELS —  Call him timid, dull, uninspiring? President Bush has an answer for you: Look at Malta.

Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev may have been fazed by the gale that raged around the Maltese islands, but to Bush, it was just a zephyr. Or so an ebullient Bush claimed here Monday.

“You’ve been to Maine,” Bush said to a reporter who asked him if he thought he had erred in returning to his ship, the cruiser Belknap, on Saturday afternoon, after Navy officials had suggested the storm might make water travel too risky.

“Don’t tell me that little chop was risking anything,” the President said, laughing.

“The fact that we got out there and the seas kicked up even more--the winds were up to 60 knots, 50 knots, which is a big wind, and along with that came a swell, and along with that came a chop--but we didn’t miss a beat. In fact, we had a very relaxed evening out there,” he said.

Asked if he was “hot dogging” on the question, Bush laughed again.

“Well,” he said, “you know these charismatic, macho, visionary guys, they’ll do anything.”