Tony Blair: Clinton Is 'Weird'

newsmax.com ^ | Sept. 29, 2003 | Peter Riddell

[LRS]

Author Peter Riddell says Blair was heavily uncomplimentary about Clinton's "contribution" to peace talks on Northern Ireland.

x42 probably mistook the word "piece" when PM Blair said "peace"...

[BlessedBeGod]

Bless your heart, Mr. Prime Minister. I respect you even more than before.

[Hildy]

What an odd choice of word to describe him: WEIRD. That's can mean so many things. But somehow, it truly fits the weird, bent one.

[Hildy]

Ya know, I may be reading into this a bit too much, but think about what he really might be saying...First, Clinton was WEIRD, and then he goes on to point out that he gave Bush Secrets, meaning he didn't give them to Clinton. Maybe Weird is code for DRUGGED OUT.

[Digger]

According to this person, his affair is common knowledge even to Hillary!..

Can't some journalist get this to public consumption. I guess if GW wouldn't do anything to disrupt these two evils why should I hope for anything but the worst.

[MissCalico]

And I adore Tony Blair and this makes me like him more.

Me too, but I can do without Cherie. My theory is that Tony is slowly realizing he's more conservative than he was in his idealistic youth. The problem is not his idealism but the insincere form ideals take on the Euro/US left. Another time/place, another spouse and he might have....Tony, call me.

[Ditto]

Gee, thanks. How about the interest due on all that lend-lease stuff we sent ya?

First of all, every dollar's worth of stuff we sent them in the 40s was a drop less American blood spent in defeating Hitler. Secondly, I'd say that 60+ years as the only reliable friend we have had in the world has paid whatever debt they may have had to us in full.

[rightazrain]

I seem to remember being told quite frequently by the elite media during the bent one's term that:

Bill Clinton and Tony Blair are very close.

They're buddies, see eye to eye.

Etc. etc., ad nauseum . . . .


Am I wrong here?

[MissCalico]

"Details, please!!!!"

---

Bill and Tony's excruciating adventure
By Philip Webster, The Times
30sep03

Tony Blair and Bill Clinton were not the close pals they appeared to be, a new book about Mr Blair's relations with George W. Bush and his predecessor reveals.

Mr Blair and Mr Clinton had several rows, one of them lasting 90 minutes.
Mr Blair found the president "weird", and his team was heavily uncomplimentary about the Clinton contribution to the Northern Ireland peace process. As for his successor, Mr Blair bombarded Mr Bush with a stream of confidential advice, particularly in the wake of the September 11 attacks on the US.

The messages, comparable with those sent by Churchill to Roosevelt during World War II, have remained a secret but are revealed in the book Hug Them Close by Peter Riddell, chief political commentator with The Times.

British officials, anxious to avoid the image of the Prime Minister seeming too close to the President, have said little or nothing about them. The book reveals that Mr Blair wrote them frequently, in a familiar jerky style, highlighting areas for action. Many are thought to have been messages about Mr Blair's world travels as he tried to keep the international coalition together for action against the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Charting the Blair-Clinton relationship, Riddell says that in the early days Mr Blair seemed overawed by the elder man's pyrotechnics. The relationship always had an "edge", according to an adviser who was present at all their meetings and saw it as "master and pupil". But after Mr Blair became Prime Minister in 1997, he asserted himself and was never entirely at ease with Mr Clinton when they were both in office. He did not like playing the junior partner and told a senior civil servant he found Mr Clinton "weird".

According to a senior minister, Mr Clinton's role in Northern Ireland was "hugely exaggerated". The two men fell out during the Kosovo conflict in 1999. There were several clashes and what Sir Christopher Meyer, the former British ambassador in Washington, told Riddell was a "very angry" 90-minute phone call between the two. There was a "huge, monumental explosion" from the president about a British briefing and an article in The New York Times that suggested British unhappiness at Mr Clinton's reluctance to consider ground troops.

Riddell was told by a senior civil servant Mr Blair would have liked to have been a president.



privacy © The Australian

[Maria S]

I looked this up on amazon.com just now; it's

"Blair and Bush: The Odd Couple"
by Peter Riddell

not due out until November

[CyberAnt]

Well then .. let me add a little sweetner !!

I'm reading Posner's book, "Why America Slept".

Beginning near the bottom of pg 16 and continuing onto pg 17, he talks about a new org (the ABCC), whereby the CIA and FBI were cooperating in terrorist investigations. The CIA tipped off the FBI to a group of suspected Palestinian terrorists in Los Angeles. The FBI arrested 8 men. Instead of being lauded, the FBI and CIA came under harsh attack from civil liberties groups. And .. I quote Posner:

"Congressman Barney Frank, the Massachusetts democrat who was a strong advocate of protecting civil liberties, led a successful effort to amend the Immigration and Nationality Act so that MEMBERSHIP IN A TERRORIST GROUP was no longer sufficient to deny a visa. Under Franks' amendment, which seems unthinkable post-9/11, a visa could only be denied if the government could prove that the applicant HAD COMMITTED AN ACT OF TERRORISM." (ALL CAPS are mine)

This rendered our people toothless in stopping these terrorists from coming here and taking flying lessons and causing 9/11. Thank you MR. BARNEY FRANKS.

I would presume the Patriot Act has corrected that TERRIBLE AMENDMENT!!

[MissCalico]

I believe this book, ("Hug Them Close" by Peter Riddell, chief political commentator with The Times) is not available yet on Amazon but I saw it for sale on some UK political websites when I googled the title.

[CyberCowboy777]

Do we have any other details on this amendment - like who voted for it?

[ffusco]

You're entitled to your opinion.

[rickmichaels]

I wonder if Blair witnessed one of Clinton's purple rages.

Monica certainly did...while she was on her knees.

[CyberAnt]

There is one Endnote which says: Federal News Service, August 7, 1989, and July 13, 1993.

Hope that helps.

[Taffini]

I wonder if Blair witnessed one of Clinton's purple rages.

Monica certainly did...while she was on her knees.



She tried to complain, but clinton told her not to talk with her mouth full

[Republic]

Tony Blair: Clinton Is 'Weird'

Goodness-that is just so mild it barely deserves comment. Clinton is weird, for sure, in that perverted, rapist, sociopathic way we all abhor. Yeah-he is weird-and that is just the starting off point. Ruthless, arrogant, stupid, make that ignorant, greedy, manipulative, jealous, shallow, corrupt and a perjuror help fill in before the rapist, traitorous part comes in...

Bill clinton is and always has been OUT OF CONTROL!

[RinaseaofDs]

Paraphrasing, Churchill once said, essentially, that "After the age of 30, one no longer has any excuse for being liberal."

[Ditto]

And you are entitled to your opinion as well. But look for a moment who suffered greater loss in WWII, who spilt the most blood, who didn't surrender like the rest of Europe, who had their cities bombed, and then tell us which nation has stood with us since then more firmly, through thick and thin, then the UK.

You can't.

God Bless the UK .... from an Irish-Catholic American.