YouTube: Crass Berlusconi Talks on Mobile Phone as Germany's Merkel Waits

Mobile phones give crass, rude people--people like Italy's leader Silvio Berlusconi, people like the asshole next to you on the bus yammering away at full volume, the asshole who answers his phone at a restaurant....a perfect forum to show the rest of us that, yes, they are rude, unkempt, vile assholes.

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi on Saturday snubbed a ceremonial walk by NATO leaders on a bridge across the Rhine River because he was busy on the phone. Televised images of the event showed Berlusconi getting out of his car while intent on a conversation on his mobile phone. He then gestured to German Chancellor Angela Merkel that he would salute her later, and continued with his call while other leaders gathered on the bridge for a group photo.