President Bush did a roundtable interview with a group of foreign journalists yesterday in which he was asked about his feelings on working with the new Italian prime minister, Romano Prodi. The president responded by couching his answer in what a great and accepting guy he is. Did you also know some of his best friends are black?

THE PRESIDENT: …What’s interesting about our country is that we’ve got — we’ve had close ties with a lot of countries. My ranch was settled by Germans.

Q: Really?

THE PRESIDENT: Yes. There’s a huge number of Italian Americans. A lot of Russian Americans. You know, Norm Mineta in my Cabinet is a Japanese American. In other words, so when you talk about relations with an American President, you’ve got to understand that there’s a — at least I have, I know my predecessors have, connections, close connections with people who have fond — either fond memories and/or great pride in their motherland.

One thing: Norm Mineta resigned as Transportation Secretary last week.