Worst argument for parliamentarism ever

I'm definitely picking low-hanging fruit here, but what the heck.

Iltalehti, the sleazier of Finland's two major tabloids, yesterday argued in its editorial (fi) that since President Bush declined to meet President Halonen, the Cabinet should start running Finnish foreign policy No, seriously. The editorial really argues that a) the US President declining to meet with the Finnish President is a big problem, which b) should be solved by changing Finland's foreign policy leader.

For giggles, I translated parts of the editorial, with certain marked substitutions for effect:

If the President never meets the [leader of the Soviet Union] and negotiates with him, it's difficult to imagine how she could lead Finland's foreign policy in relation to the [Soviet Union].

...

Everyone knows that the [Soviet Union] is particularly important from a Finnish point of view regardless of what sort of politics it practices globally or in certain vulnerable areas of the world. We must continuously maintain a high level connection to it. The most important thing is that the state leadership's confidential relationship with the [Kreml] works if crises occur near Finland.

...

Now would be a time for conclusions. Finland's and the [Soviet Union's] relations at the highest level are not in order. The problem is probably mutual.

For Finland the solution is found in that the Cabinet starts to lead traditional foreign policy too, as the new constitution requires, because it alone is also responsible for it in front of the Parliament.

NB: The new constitution requires no such thing.

Aside from what a horrible idea it is to let a foreign head of state decide who leads Finnish foreign policy, the lack of logic on display is staggering. If there's some reason why Finnish prime ministers are bound to get along better with US presidents than Finnish presidents do, Iltalehti sure doesn't mention it. Presumably if a Prime Minister fails to secure a meeting, Iltalehti will advocate for putting the Speaker of the Parliament in charge of foreign policy, then the chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, and so on.