Ick, girl cooties ABC News reports that someone went to some trouble to make sure Prince Abdullah’s incoming plane wasn’t handled by a female flight controller. And to keep the order deniable, too.

When Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah met with President Bush this week to discuss the violence in the Middle East, someone asked air traffic controllers to keep female flight controllers from handling his plane.

The request, officials from the National Air Traffic Controller’s Union said, was not made formally by the U.S. State Department or the Saudi government, but it came to the airport manager at Texas State Technical College Airport in Abilene, where Bush and others land when they stay at Bush’s ranch in Crawford, Texas. […]

The FAA controllers apparently weren’t sure how to react to the unusual request, but kept control of the plane in the hands of a man while they sorted it out. Normally, the controller scheduled to be handle the plane then would have a woman.

Remember, it’s wimpy, morally equivocal “cultural relativism” if liberals are so much as courteous to people from non-Western value systems, but it’s admirable, hard-nosed realpolitik when a Republican administration scrambles to cater to a jumped-up prince’s neurotic fear and hatred of women. Don’t forget that this is the same royal whose clerical pals at home call for Palestinians to “enslave” Israeli women. Lick the boot harder, George, you missed a spot. [11:57 AM]