Tomorrow's talking points...

...the EU area bailout, and Wikileaks.

The Germany Dispatches
Internal Source Kept US Informed of Merkel Coalition Negotiations

DPA


The US was kept abreast of German coalition negotiations as they took place. Here, Chancellor Merkel's Christian Democrats meet with Foreign Minister Westerwelle's Free Democrats in October 2009. Internal notes from the talks ended up in Washington not long later.

The 250,000 US State Department documents made public by WikiLeaks
reveal that the US has an extensive network of informants in Berlin
and was kept informed of coalition negotiations as Chancellor Merkel
was forming her current government. US officials, the cables show, are skeptical of several top German politicians.

The more than 250,000 secret documents from the US State Department
show just how critical the American diplomats were of the new German
government. In particular, the new Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle, leader of the pro-business Free Democrats (FDP), is seen in a negative light. The secret reports describe him as incompetent, vain and critical of America. The US diplomats report that they face a challenge in dealing with a politician who is considered an "enigma," who has little foreign policy experience and "remains skeptical about the US." An embassy cable from Berlin from Sept. 22, 2009 describes Westerwelle as having an "exuberant personality." That is why he finds it difficult to take a backseat when it comes to any matters of dispute with Chancellor Angela Merkel," the cable says.