Blair cast as hard man by Bush

Blair also cast as a cowardly neo-con poodle by Thankfully_in_Britain

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1193807,00.html

Tony Blair, who once struggled to shake off his image as the Bambi of British politics, found himself cast as the hardest of hard men by George Bush yesterday.

"As we like to say in Crawford , he's a stand-up kinda guy, he shows backbone and courage and strong leadership," the president declared in the White House rose garden, as he lavished praise on Mr Blair for standing shoulder to shoulder with him on Iraq.

Such a compliment - Mr Bush's way of telling the world he values Mr Blair's counsel in a week when his influence appears to have waned in the White House - highlights Mr Blair's acute difficulty with the plain-speaking Texan.

What is clearly the highest honour in the president's adopted state sounds to British ears like a jokey aside about how the man dismissed by critics as a creation of spin has turned into a stand-up comedian.

Johnson: "Sir, a poodle's standing up is like a dog's walking on his hind legs. It is not done well; but you are surprised to find it done at all."

We have some awesome writers here at the DU, but you're one of the best!

One tries to contribute, but there is an awesome collection of minds at this site. Truly a democratic underground.

You manage to take the obvious which has been obscured,...and make it obvious, once again.

And I have been very aware and impressed by your contributions as well.

was Johnson's retort at discovering a WOMAN preacher in a kirk in the Scottish Highlands?

I thought he came to advise Bush not to oppose gay marriage

crumble?

He's just an upper class nancy-boy if you ask me.

that would mean Tony's not afraid of horses???

Tut-tut

but I didn't know Tony swung both ways?

This latest rendition of The Emperor's New Clothes looked pretty desperate.

Worst of all was the gargolyle Cherie Booth looking like butter wouldn't melt in her ass....

Her father the later Robert Maxwell must be pissing himself in his grave

Under no circumstances should they be allowed to spawn.
Carol

that's because Blair is always hard when he's around Bush.

I recall him being almost demanding with Bush on this, but I haven't heard his reaction to Bush's latest move.

I bet Blair caved.

Preferably in a prison somewhere.
John
I am underwhelmed by all this leadership.

eom

Jay Ward Productions gearing up for the new season. This time they will be fighting on the side of Fearless Leader, the Nazi uniform wearing, monocled, bad guy with the riding crop, with Donald Rumsfeld to be cast in the promising role.

I beg thee! Standing by.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/04/18/wbush18.xml&sSheet=/portal/2004/04/18/ixportal.html&secureRefresh=true&_requestid=56405

In the aftermath of his Rose Garden news conference with Tony Blair, President George W Bush chatted to the Prime Minister's wife, Cherie. Mr Blair, for the first time since arriving in America the day before, allowed himself to relax. The National Security Adviser, Condoleezza Rice, as on past occasions, joined them to eat. So did Andrew Card, the White House chief of staff, another face well-known to the Blairs.

A few corridors away, however, a senior Bush administration official was giving a rather less flattering insight into Mr Blair's current standing within the White House.

For two years Tony Blair has passionately lobbied in Washington for the now-shelved Middle East "road map", which alluded to a Palestinian right of return to Israel. He had made it his business to pester Mr Bush on the matter. How deeply, the official was asked, was Mr Blair involved in these dramatic, new negotiations?

An embarrassed silence followed. The official was clearly stumped: "Well, I haven't anything to tell you," he finally offered. "You know we weren't negotiating with the British government. We were negotiating with the Israelis. We kept European and Arab governments informed, but it wasn't play-by-play information."

that his only function is to hold Bush's hand when he's about to do
something crass.

His opinion is neither asked for nor wanted.

and he's already so far up Bush's arse than he can't turn round. So his only option is to plough on ahead up the colon, and try to become Bush's mouthpiece instead.

Anybody who still thinks the invading Iraq was a good idea is pigheaded. "This has been tough weeks" in which it is made clear that resistance to occupation has popular support and that many Iraqis don't want a future for their country under a neo-liberal dictatorship that Bush and Blair would impose on them.

Bush and Blair both fit the form of pigheaded. What they are doing hasn't worked and all they offer is more of the same. The only difference they seek now is to have UN troops take the brunt of Iraqi rage at the piracy of their national wealth instead of "coalition" troops.

It isn't enough to bring in the UN. The UN must be brought in, the IGC disbanded and replaced with an interim government that is truly representative of Iraqi factions, not one that is willing to rubber stamp the will of transnational colonialists. The proposed Iraqi constitution, which ratifies transnational piracy, must be scrapped in favor of one that gives the Iraqi people sovereignty over their own resources. Sales of Iraq's natural wealth and assets made under Bremer's transnational colonial regime should be ruled null and void.