Blair Aide Quits With Tirade

New York Times ^ | May 12, 2003 | WARREN HOGE

[frosty snowman]

LONDON, May 12 — Clare Short, Britain's secretary for International Development, today became the second person to resign from the cabinet over Iraq policy, ending her six years in government with a surprisingly personal attack on Prime Minister Tony Blair in the House of Commons.

The immediate cause of her resignation, she said, was Mr. Blair's "betrayal" of his promise to work for United Nations involvement in postwar Iraq and his cooperation in an American campaign to "bully" the United Nations.

But she went beyond those disputes over issues to accuse Mr. Blair of abandoning Labor Party values and the policies of his administration in order to further his own obsessive ambition.

She assailed Mr. Blair for becoming a "presidential" leader, formulating bad policy in secret with a small group of advisers, forcing it upon Parliament by "diktats" straining party loyalty and undermining public trust.

Even given Ms. Short's reputation for feisty outspokenness, legislators who packed the chamber appeared startled at the personal animus in her statement.

"To the prime minister," she said, "I would say that he has achieved great things since 1997 but, paradoxically, he is in danger of destroying his legacy as he becomes increasingly obsessed by his place in history." [ ...cut... ]

[beckett]

"Audible gasps" and "sharp intakes of breath" are par for the course in the British Parliament, where exaggerated acting is a big part of the tradition. Hoge must know that. But it seems Howell Raines, Warren Hoge and their buddies at the NYT want to take Tony Blair to the woodshed, so this rather unimportant and long anticipated resignation is given full-court hype, with "audible gasps" and "sharp intakes of breath" galore.

[Ranger]

I heard her interviewed on NPR this morning. She's barking mad. I hope the screen door didn't hit her on the way out.

[Tamzee]

I hope the door not only DID smack her butt, but also that the bottom of it caught the back of her ankle and gave her a nasty boo-boo ;-)

Just a venomous and inhumane brat, given the torture chambers, prisons and mass graves we have seen recently...