A Spork in the Drawer

Memo To Jon Stewart:

There is no such thing as a "Prime Minister of England".

That said:

A touch of nerves was evident, too, on Thursday night when Blair faced a wholly more formidable inquisition, that of the satirical Daily Show, presented by Jon Stewart. Blair came across as tense and a tad tetchy in front of cameras in New York as he was hit by a stream of barbed comments from Stewart on his friendship with George Bush and the Iraq war.

Stewart, who enjoys a television following as one of the sharpest political observers in the US, began by reflecting on the coincidence of the Yale posting with the economic meltdown on Wall Street. "You've picked the perfect time to come and work in America. Did you get your money up front?"

"Yes," Blair replied.

When the interview turned to the subject of the US president, Blair was unable to disguise his discomfort. "Your relationship with George Bush seems - what's the word I'm looking for? - inexplicable," Stewart said, prompting a roar from the live audience.

Blair winced and said: "Here's something I find always goes down well, particularly back home: I like him."

"I would probably like him too if he wasn't in charge of me," Stewart fired back. He added: "It's like we're talking about the bad boy at school, and you're saying, 'You don't know him like I know him'."

"I'm not a fairweather friend. We've been through a lot together," Blair replied.

Slimy bastard.

At any rate, here's an English guy:

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Fitting

The latest addition to the WaPo's ever expanding stable of rightwing columinists, former Bush speechwriter Michael "Axis of Evil" Gerson, writes today about Tony Blair. It's pretty much the expected puffery for a Loyal Bushie from another Loyal Bushie. But this part caught my eye:

Predicting a legacy is a tricky thing, but Blair's is clear. Thirty years ago, Harvard political theorist Harvey Mansfield mockingly asked, "Who today is called a liberal for strength and confidence in defense of liberty?" By this high standard, Tony Blair is a liberal.

Harvey Mansfield...Harvey Mansfield...Oh! Now I remember! Just two weeks ago Mansfield was writing in favor of dictatorship:

Now the rule of law has two defects, each of which suggests the need for one-man rule. The first is that law is always imperfect by being universal, thus an average solution even in the best case, that is inferior to the living intelligence of a wise man on the spot, who can judge particular circumstances. This defect is discussed by Aristotle in the well-known passage in his "Politics" where he considers "whether it is more advantageous to be ruled by the best man or the best laws."

[...]

The case for a strong executive begins from urgent necessity and extends to necessity in the sense of efficacy and even greatness. It is necessary not merely to respond to circumstances but also in a comprehensive way to seek to anticipate and form them. "Necessary to" the survival of a society expands to become "necessary for" the good life there, and indeed we look for signs in the way a government acts in emergencies for what it thinks to be good after the emergency has passed. A free government should show its respect for freedom even when it has to take it away. Yet despite the expansion inherent in necessity, the distinction between urgent crises and quiet times remains. Machiavelli called the latter tempi pacifici, and he thought that governments could not take them for granted. What works for quiet times is not appropriate in stormy times. John Locke and the American Founders showed a similar understanding to Machiavelli's when they argued for and fashioned a strong executive.

It says a lot that a Bush cultist is favorably quoting an outright advocate of dictatorship.

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Please Let this Be Just A Demented Rumor

Or my head will explode:

Outgoing Prime Minister Tony Blair is a contender for the job of president of the World Bank, according to one of America's most respected economists.

[...]

But Nobel prize-winning economist Joe Stiglitz, a former senior vice-president and chief economist at the World Bank, told BBC Radio 5 Live Mr Blair was in the frame for the high-profile role.

He said: "He is one of the people that is clearly being discussed.

Nonetheless, it would keep with only appointing Loyal Bushies to everything.

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The Lapdog Resigns

A reputation in tatters:

Tony Blair has announced he will stand down as prime minister on 27 June.

He made the announcement in a speech to party activists in his Sedgefield constituency, after earlier briefing the Cabinet on his plans.

He acknowledged his government had not always lived up to high expectations but said he had been very lucky to lead "the greatest nation on earth".

Now I have to find out more about his expected successor, Gordon Brown.

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If It's Not Hookers It's Cars

Powell:

No foreign diplomat has been closer or had more access to President Bush, his family and his administration than the magnetic and fabulously wealthy Prince Bandar bin Sultan of Saudi Arabia.

Prince Bandar has mentored Mr. Bush and his father through three wars and the broader campaign against terrorism, reliably delivering — sometimes in the Oval Office — his nation’s support for crucial Middle East initiatives dependent on the regional legitimacy the Saudis could bring, as well as timely warnings of Saudi regional priorities that might put it into apparent conflict with the United States. Even after his 22-year term as Saudi ambassador ended in 2005, he still seemed the insider’s insider. But now, current and former Bush administration officials are wondering if the longtime reliance on him has begun to outlive its usefulness.

[...]

Robert Jordan, a former Bush administration ambassador to Saudi Arabia, said the Saudis’ mixed signals have come at a time when King Abdullah — who has ruled the country since 1995 but became king only in 2005 after the death of his brother, Fahd — has said he does not want to go down in history as Mr. Bush’s Arab Tony Blair. “I think he feels the need as a kind of emerging leader of the Arab world right now to maintain a distance,” he said.

[...]

A few nights after he resigned his post as secretary of state two years ago, Colin L. Powell answered a ring at his front door. Standing outside was Prince Bandar, then Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the United States, with a 1995 Jaguar. Mr. Powell’s wife, Alma, had once mentioned that she missed their 1995 Jaguar, which she and her husband had traded in. Prince Bandar had filed that information away, and presented the Powells that night with an identical, 10-year-old model. The Powells kept the car — a gift that the State Department said was legal — but recently traded it away.

I've long regretted not having a law degree or a business degree; I thought that they were passports to riches.

But it turns out that none of those things matter.

So, can someone introduce me to a Saudi prince?

'Cuz I'd like a new car.

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Do Ya Think?

U.S. strategy on Iran may have backfired

It seemed like a good idea at the time: Increase the military, diplomatic and economic pressure on Iran to get the country to bow to the international community on its nuclear enrichment program and curtail its alleged troublemaking in Iraq.

[...]

Months of hard-nosed U.S. political and military pressure on Iran may have further radicalized and emboldened the regime, undermining Washington's stated aim of neutralizing the Iranian threat without resorting to war, analysts say.

You'd have to be naive to believe the administration's "stated aim" on anything.

Investigative reporter Seymour Hersh's New Yorker articles detailing U.S. plans to attack Iran, and a Russian newspaper report specifying this Friday as the day for U.S. airstrikes have made the rounds of blogs and Persian-language satellite channels.

The rumors about an attack on Iran this Friday have been floating around for a couple of weeks now. I can't say I put much credence in them but what with the carrier groups floating around the area and the capture of the Brits - a deliberate provocation? - this weekend is as good a time as any from an administration persepective. At any rate, we'll know soon enough.

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Only Disconnect

The White House:

The Bush administration on Wednesday welcomed Tony Blair’s decision to withdraw nearly a quarter of the British troops in Iraq over the next few months, saying the move showed that in parts of the country “things are going pretty well”.

Iraq:

A U.S. helicopter that had a "hard landing" Wednesday might have been brought down by enemy fire, according to military spokesman Maj. Gen. William Caldwell, and an insurgent group has claimed responsibility.

[...]

A car bomb laced with poisonous gas exploded near a hospital in southwestern Baghdad's Bayaa neighborhood Wednesday, killing two civilians and wounding seven others.

[...]

On Tuesday, a cloud of deadly toxic gas engulfed an Iraqi town, killing six people and leaving dozens of others choking on fumes after a tanker carrying chlorine exploded outside a restaurant.

"Hard landing," indeed.

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Cut And Run!

The Poodle jumps ship:

British Prime Minister Tony Blair will announce on Wednesday that thousands of his country's troops are to begin withdrawing from Iraq in weeks, media reports said.

According to The Sun daily, Blair will say that the first contingent of 1,500 troops will leave the war-torn country and arrive back in Britain in a matter of weeks, and a further 1,500 will follow by the end of the year.

For all intents and purposes the US is about to be a coalition of one.

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A Coalition Of One

Across the pond:

Officials here dismissed as speculation, though, a report in The Daily Telegraph on Thursday that those numbers would be cut by 3,000 before the end of May.

[...]

Margaret Beckett, the foreign secretary, acknowledged that Britain had not marched in lock step with the White House on the current troop issue, as it has been accused of doing in the past by its critics in Europe and at home. Mr. Blair has announced that he will step down this year, and some political analysts say that he wants a significant troop withdrawal from Iraq to offset the damage to his legacy caused by the war there.

Speaking to a parliamentary panel on Thursday, Ms. Beckett said the impact of the change in American strategy would be “somewhat limited” for Britain. “Obviously it’s an issue that people will look at, but I would say that it’s a change of direction, as the president says, for the United States and doesn’t necessarily imply a change of direction for us,” she said.

Earlier, she told reporters: “We are dealing with the security situation in Basra. It is not our intention at the present time to send more troops.”

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Do Ya Think?

The Lapdog speaks:

Tony Blair conceded last night that western intervention in Iraq had been a disaster. In an interview with Al-Jazeera, the Arabic TV station, the prime minister agreed with the veteran broadcaster Sir David Frost when he suggested that intervention had "so far been pretty much of a disaster".

[...]

Downing Street tried to downplay the apparent slip. "I think that's just the way in which he answers questions," said a spokesman. "His views on Iraq are documented in hundreds of places, and that is not one of them."

Ah, yes, he misspoke. Ain't that always the way.

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