Howard refuses to congratulate Bush

Michael Howard deepened his feud with the White House yesterday when he pointedly refused to offer the traditional post-election congratulations to George Bush.

Angered by a White House edict banning him from meeting the president - as punishment for criticising Tony Blair over Iraq - Mr Howard said it would be wrong for him to express any view on the poll.

In an interview with the Sunday Telegraph the arch-Atlanticist was asked whether he was pleased that a fellow rightwinger had beaten a liberal. He said: "I made it clear that I could work perfectly well with both President Bush and President Kerry ... I don't think it's appropriate to express a view on those elections."

(snip)

Mr Howard's remarks may appear bland. But in the language of diplomacy they amount to a rebuke to Mr Bush - and in particular to his polling guru, Karl Rove, who told him he would not be welcome at the White House after he criticised Mr Blair's use of intelligence before the Iraq war.

Mr Rove was reported by the Sun as telling Howard aides: "You can forget about him meeting the president. Don't bother coming."

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http://politics.guardian.co.uk/conservatives/story/0,9061,1345806,00.html

Jeebers, bush, are you doing this idiotic hissy-fit act on purpose? You gonna play kiss and make up later?

:wtf:

Ours is little Johnnie W, the one in question is Michael who is leader of the opposition British Conservative Party.

Our little Johnnie was the first on the phone to Bush. Fuckwits the pair of them.

Your little Johnny was the first on his knees to Bush*.

Don't hit me! As an eventual interdependent-visa immigrant to Oz, I have diplomatic immunity! :D

:-) Honest mistake... i'm sure the aussies are lining up to brown
nose the new fudge.

Mark Latham's comment on the Bush "election" was that he respects
the vote of the American people. Full stop. End of message.

a phone call from the Prime Minister of Spain.

It's like having a 7th grader as President of the United States.

I'm almost beginning to look forward to 4 more years of laughing at this incompetent ass.

My GOD! He has the emotional development of Piaget's 4-7 year olds:

"Speech becomes more social, less egocentric. The child has an intuitive grasp of logical concepts in some areas. However, there is still a tendency to focus attention on one aspect of an object while ignoring others. Concepts formed are crude and irreversible. Easy to believe in magical increase, decrease, disappearance. Reality not firm. Perceptions dominate judgment.

In moral-ethical realm, the child is not able to show principles underlying best behavior. Rules of a game not develop, only uses simple do's and don'ts imposed by authority."

I would love to show that to some people I know.
Thanks.

Even Mr Zapatero, who pulled Spanish troops out of Iraq immediately on taking office, ignored an obvious snub when Mr Bush refused to take his congratulatory call personally and publicly called for an "increased transatlantic dialogue and respect for each other's position".

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1345046,00.html

.

but, of course, I could be mistaken.

Us damned Americans are pretty ignorant of the rest of the world. :)

Oh, the humiliation.

You're thinking of John Howard, the Australian PM who has his lips pressed firmly against bu$h's tu$h.

and I thought, "well no shit, doh."

LOL...

What an absolute ASS Rove is for saying that, but of course it's typical of someone of his arrogance. May he someday be so puffed up with himself that he explodes into a million pieces. Good riddance for America & the World.

and Curly. nyuk nyuk nyuk

If he'd chill on criminalizing cannabis smokers i might really
like him. It seems he's taking some wisdom from the portillo/clark
backbench where all the brains are sitting.

Distance yourself from neville chamberlain and foreign usurpers of
democracy.... wise move.

to promote equal rights, or so I'd read -- if somebody wants to correct me on this, feel free. I'd read they saw it as an opportunity to trump the Labour party on such issues as gay rights, women's pay issues and childcare, and immigration. Was I dreaming this, or are they actually doing it?

The british tory party is left of the american democrats supporting
universal healthcare, recycling, non-prison solutions to hard drugs
addiction and equal rights for all persons...even gays. This is
driven largely by the fact that they, in the direct opposite
situation to the american-GOP-fascists, are in the democratic
party's position of being shifted towards their opposite number
by electoral majorities.

Unfortunatley, the party is overwhelmingly VERY old people, who
harken back to the days of empire (read: white empire), and god save
the queen.... but there are some smarties on the back benches who
all smoked grass in their college days, who are pushing for a much
more humanist approach towards conservatism... and frankly, these
folks are REALLY conservatives... nice gardens, live and let live,
no foreign wars, balanced budgets and whatnot. Blair and Bush
are the neoliberal neocons. Just that old sector acts as
a deadweight on the party and keeps them from instituting necessary
reforms.

I point to cannabis as a primary example. The party is the same
as bush, by and large, at war with a plant... all the while talking
some lie that they support personal responsibility, when if they
actually did, then they would let people be reponsible for their
own choices to smoke or not smoke and not turn it in to some silly
drama of the prison state... so their non-conservative element which
frankly is imported from the USA, is a real drag on things.

As well, they're short on brains on the front bench. David Davis,
the shadow home secretary (like several american cabinet posts
glued together including ashcroft) is a total idiot, and every time
he opens his mouth, the whole party is unelectable. (Think: Dan Quayle)

However.... Gordon Brown has been secretly championing feminism and
child poverty by changing the british tax code, with such success
that i honestly believe that Blair is just a figurehead... and
brown has done all the good works of the administration. My dream
government in the UK would have Brown's wisdom in the treasury
supporting the poor and disenfranchised, Howard as foreign secretary,
portillo as something else important, and Clarke as PM.

The torys hate pot smokers and would throw me in prison if they
were in power, so i can't support the wankers... and i would not
support them as long as they stand against feminism, by supporting
child poverty (brown is right guys!). So they're screwed. They're
waiting for a generation of imperial oldsters to die off before they
can reform their policy base to be truly conservative (small "c") and
then i expect them to take leadership south of the border (UK).

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=191&topic_id=10&mesg_id=10

I'm no expert on the conservatives... but i think they've got
potential to correct the bush problem that has rotted out labour
and destroyed the labour parliamentary party. History will have a
chapter on triangulation and the third way... and it will be titled
"dead end politics, how to destroy your own party strategically."

Gordon Brown rocks... he's the closest person in realpolitik to
sanity in electoral britain... if only the torys would grow up and
look to the future and not the past. Europe must be solid and
united to oppose criminal fascism from america... and they've just
not figured that out yet.

I'm getting ready to go to bed, but I've bookmarked the thread to read when I'm a little more 'with it' -- unlike many Americans, I'm interested in all political systems, and how issues tend to precipitate out between them. A few of the Canadian DUers went out of their way to post analyses of the Canadian elections, a few months ago, I found that very interesting, too.

Also have a German friend on a mailing list who likes to talk about what things are like in Germany from time to time.

Maybe it's just because ours are so discouraging here, right now that I find other countries' partisan nuts and bolts so interesting, I don't know. Or maybe it's just that I'm curious!

It was interesting. I'm one of those ignorant Americans who don't know much about other governments, but now I'm starting to learn more, and I like it.

Every little bit helps.

The only way I think I'll be able to bear another four years of this knucklehead is if he drags the whole Republican Party to the bottom of the cesspool with him.

--bkl

Also, clearly only liars are allowed in the * White House! Blair would most certainly be invited.
:)

one powerful guy who's willing to stand up for democracy. Too bad he's in the wrong god damn country.
When is someone finally going to stand up to the little oil pimp?

Here's the actual interview in the Sunday Telegraph:


So, really, he didn't refuse to congratulate him; he just said he had no preference for Bush, and he wasn't going to do whatever Bush told him. Quite a good remark for him, I think: he gets a dig in at Blair for being Bush's poodle, and the idea of being willing to work with the Americans, without being pushed around by them, would appeal to his core old-fashioned Tory voters, who still dream of Britain "punching above her weight" in global politics.