First major-country Olympics opening boycott

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has announced she will not attend the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics. Given that France’s foreign minister already called for such a boycott last week, the ball could start rolling pretty quickly in Europe:

As pressure built for concerted western protests to China over the crackdown in Tibet, EU leaders prepared to discuss the crisis for the first time today, amid a rift over whether to boycott the Olympics.

The disclosure that Germany is to stay away from the games’ opening ceremonies in August could encourage President Nicolas Sarkozy of France to join in a gesture of defiance and complicate Gordon Brown’s determination to attend the Olympics.

Donald Tusk, Poland's prime minister, became the first EU head of government to announce a boycott on Thursday and he was promptly joined by President Václav Klaus of the Czech Republic, who had previously promised to travel to Beijing.

Of course, our Preznit will certainly show up, if for no other reason than the hundreds of billions of dollars we owe Chinese creditors, as well as to beg Beijing to revalue its currency. And Chinese leaders will hail the appearance of the alleged “leader of the free world” as an imprimatur of Olympic success.

And, if Gordon Brown wants to replace Tony Blair as Bush’s lapdog, I’m sure Labor will take a closer look at him, too.