Ice cream man inflamed by Bush

THE co-founder of Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream company is on the road in the US, towing a 12-foot-tall effigy of US President George W Bush with fake flames shooting out of the pants.

Ben Cohen says it is an acceptable way to point out what he calls the president’s lies.

“In a polite society, you don’t go up to a person and look at them in the face and say, ‘You’re a liar’,” Cohen said in Spokane, Washington, during a stop on the Pants on Fire Tour.

“We think it’s a lot more dignified and there’s a lot more decorum to say, ‘Excuse me sir, your pants are getting a little warm, don’t you think?’” Cohen said.

The “PantsOnFire-Mobile” is a trailer pulled behind a car.

The Bush character wears a flight suit with the words ‘Mission Accomplished’ emblazoned on the back, a reference to the president’s declaration aboard an aircraft carrier that major hostilities had ended in Iraq.

An electronic ticker on the front displays what Cohen says are Bush’s lies.

The head is a rotating cylinder with various Bush facial expressions.

White House spokesman Ken Lisaius said most people in the US support Bush’s policies, and the president supports free speech.

“The president welcomes the fact that we live in a democracy and that people in this country are free to make their own opinions known,” Lisaius said.

Reaction to the effigy across the country has been overwhelmingly positive, Cohen said, so much so that he has commissioned a second one to tour.

Portraying flames shooting out of the pants of the president isn’t disrespectful, Cohen argued.

“I believe that it’s disrespectful of the president to essentially lead the country based on lies,” he said. “If that happens, then I believe it’s actually our patriotic duty to make people aware of it.”

The PantsOnFire-Mobile will spend two weeks in Spokane before rolling on to Seattle. The tour began last November on Long Island, New York, and will continue until the November 2 elections.