Is that your maid?
Tuesday February 8, 2000 8:44 AM EST
Albright Berserk Over "Cleaning Lady" Mistake
The Progressive Review notes most undiplomatic Secretary of State Madeleine Albright taking exception to being mistaken as a cleaning lady.
"When a bunch of Albanians mistook Madeleine Albright for a hotel cleaning lady, the secretary of state spewed a most-undiplomatic, and untranslatable, stream of invective, a newspaper reports. A State Department spokesman wouldn't comment on the New York Daily News report that Albright was mistaken for a maid during last year's peace negotiations for Kosovo in Rambouillet, France. Albright at first wasn't recognized by the Albanian delegation when she walked into their room, it said.
"'One member of the delegation, who didn't realize who she was, and probably thinking she was some cleaning lady because it was after midnight, simply said to her, 'Give us five minutes and please go away,' recalled Albanian diplomat Dugagjin Gorani in War on Europe, a British TV program. Instead, Albright exploded in rage, swearing at the group, according to the reports. 'Mrs. Albright started using explicit language which the translators never could translate into Albanian,' says Veton Surroi, another member of the delegation."