Kings and paupers

In Memphis, Two Heads of Government Visit the Home of Rock 'n' Roll Royalty

The Times: Plenty of awestruck Elvis impersonators have passed through the wrought-iron gates of Graceland. Until Friday, none had the president of the United States in tow.

"It's like a dream," Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi of Japan said to President Bush in the Jungle Room of the Presley home here. Amid the faux leopard print chairs and green shag carpet covering both floor and ceiling, the prime minister then serenaded the leader of the free world.

"Loooovve mee tenderrrrr," Mr. Koizumi crooned, as Priscilla Presley, Elvis's former wife, and Lisa Marie, his daughter, looked on.

When Priscilla Presley pointed out the oversize gold-rimmed sunglasses once worn by the King of Rock 'n' Roll, the prime minister eagerly donned them, thrusting his hips and arms forward in imitation of a classic Elvis move.

"I knew he loved Elvis," Mr. Bush said afterward. "I didn't realize how much he loved Elvis." ...

The prime minister's obsession with Elvis is well known; he shares a birthday, Jan. 8, and a hairstyle with Elvis, and worked in the 1980's to erect a bronze statue of the singer in Tokyo. At one point Friday, Mr. Koizumi happily remarked to Lisa Marie Presley that she looked like her father. He later threw his arm around her, belting out some Elvis lyrics, "Hold me close, hold me tight."

Mr. Bush, though, eventually cut off the performance, clapping the prime minister on the shoulder and firmly shaking his hand in a none-too-subtle message that the curtain was about to fall. ...

At one end of the famous Graceland wall, inscribed by decades of tourists, stood a cluster of onlookers from the nearby predominantly black neighborhood, Whitehaven, that surrounds Graceland. One, a former state representative named Bret Thompson, said he had come because of a recent crime wave in Memphis that has caused consternation among the city's leaders.

"We had, I guess, the most violent week in Memphis history," Mr. Thompson said. "We had a killing every day." He gestured at the flashing lights and barricades closing off the street to protect the president. "This is the safest place in the world right now, isn't it?" ...

The Graceland tour capped a two-day visit by Mr. Koizumi to the United States; on Thursday, the two leaders met at the White House, where the threat of a nuclear missile launching by North Korea was high on the agenda. The visit here was Mr. Bush's idea, said Michael Green, a former White House foreign policy aide.

"Frankly," Mr. Green said, "I think the bureaucrats on both sides were a little bit perplexed, if not aghast." ...

The tour was the same as ordinary tourists receive, with one big exception: there were no ropes to prevent the two leaders from sitting where Elvis sat, walking where Elvis walked or touching what Elvis touched. When Mr. Koizumi picked up the gold sunglasses, Graceland's curator, who had carefully carried the glasses into the room with gloved hands, looked as if she was about to faint.

Sure beats Koizumi going to imperial Japanese war shrines.

Must be weird for Bush to not be the least statesman-like leader in the room.

Given the problems Bush and Japan have with race relations, this was perhaps the most telling part of the article:

With Memphis reeling from a recent spate of drive-by shootings that have killed several teenagers, the White House took pains to make sure Mr. Bush's trip was not all frivolity. The president made an unannounced stop at the National Civil Rights Museum, next door to the Lorraine Motel, where the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was killed.

There, the civil rights leader Benjamin L. Hooks showed the prime minister, Mr. Bush and Laura Bush to Room 306, where Dr. King died. The visit was so last-minute that Mr. Hooks was at a dental appointment Friday morning when he received a phone call from the White House, asking him to serve as guide.

European Pressphoto Agency photo of Koizumi doing an Elvis Presley impression by Matthew Cavanaugh.