Paul Martin and his schoolgirl crush on Bono

Just mention the word Bono, and Paul Martin goes nuts.

Instead of acting like a respectable, distinguished leader of a country, he turns into a big, fat, sweaty, balding, homosexual groupie. Is this really necessary?

Am I the only guy in Canada who could care less about Bono's plans? Am I the only guy that finds all this hero worship a little on the creepy side? Does Paul Martin think that if he lip synchs to U2 songs and claps Bono on the back enough, he can be absorb some of his legendary Irish coolness through his sweaty palms?

From a Yahoo news story, we get this breathless account of what went down:

"I said 'Look, you're about to go out on tour and the people who make the decisions, the people who put together the policy, the people who influence it and package it, they're all in Ottawa."... "I said 'They're all in Ottawa,' and I said 'You're coming to this side of the ocean you have to come to Ottawa if you really want to influence public policy in this country,' - and he's coming."
Paul Martin, Prime Minister of Canada

The Globe and Mail, sensing a need to portray Martin in a more masculine light, plays it smart and doesn't bother to quote him.

Update:

It's starting to make a little more sense to me now. This article from E Online suggests that Martin didn't actually 'persuade' Bono and his band to come to Ottawa, as much as he PAID them to come:

" ... And just this week, Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin personally called on the rocker to make a tour stop in Ottawa, Canada's perennially overlooked capital, in exchange for possible international aid from Canada... "

I don't know if I feel better now or not.