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Posted on 01/24/2004 12:38:57 AM PST by ejdrapes
Although the Prime Minister was pragmatic about Mr Bush’s victory, Mrs Blair was far less sanguine about the Supreme Court decision that gave him the keys to the White House. She believed Al Gore had been “robbed” of the presidency and was hostile to the idea of her husband “cosying” up to the new President. Even as they flew to Washington for their first meeting with the presidential couple, Mrs Blair was in no mood to curry favour, the book Tony Blair: The Making of a World Leader by Philip Stephens, states. “Cherie Blair still believed that Bush had stolen the White House from Gore,” he wrote. She asked more than once during the journey why they had to be so nice to “these people”. Mrs Blair scarcely concealed her impatience as the Blair team debated on the plane whether the gift he had brought for the President, a bust of Winston Churchill, was of sufficient quality for the Oval Office. They decided to find a better one and that Mr Blair would tell the President it was on its way. Mrs Blair was annoyed at the fuss but was overruled. Another bust was delivered months later. The book’s disclosures of Mrs Blair’s forthright views will cause embarrassment in Downing Street, because of Mr Blair’s good working relations with Mr Bush, and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, although they will not surprise officials or ministers who know her well. She is known for expressing her views forcefully in private. Stephens writes that Mrs Blair behaved impeccably at her first meeting with the President “for all her outspoken resentment on the flight” and “to the great relief of her husband and aides” she had been at pains to make friends with Laura Bush. But when the Bushes came to Britain in the summer of 2001, Mrs Blair, “more tribal in her politics than Tony”, according to a close family friend, embarrassed her husband. As the two couples sat down to dinner, with the officials no longer there, Mrs Blair could not resist an argument. She is a human rights lawyer and turned to the death penalty, a subject on which she has blunt views. Judicial executions were an immoral violation of human rights, an affront under the US Constitution as much as under European laws to the fundamental principles of justice, she said. This opinion was delivered to a man who as Governor of Texas signed warrants for more than 150 executions. Mr Blair was reported to have “squirmed”, even though he shares her opposition to the death penalty. The author says that when he asked Mr Blair about the incident during research for the book he looked uncomfortable — all he would say was that Cherie had raised the issue but as far as he was concerned the United States and Britain simply had different systems. A Downing Street spokesman said: “She has always had a good relationship with President Bush and has of course discussed many issues with him, including capital punishment. The discussions have always been good-natured.” Stephens also states that later in the evening Mr Bush had been embarrassed by his wife. Laura Bush had made it clear that her views on abortion were a great deal more liberal than his. Mrs Blair, who is writing a book about prime ministers’ spouses, has made her forthright views known several times in situations that have caused alarm at No 10. She issued an apology after saying during a visit to Britain by Queen Rania of Jordan in June 2002 that young Palestinians “feel they have got no hope but to blow themselves up”. Last month she said that “Saudi Arabia’s image in the world is appalling” over its treatment of women, in a speech in front of the Saudi Ambassador. Stephens’s book also reveals the coolness shown by Vice- President Cheney in his early meetings with Mr Blair and how Mr Cheney showed his hostility later on to Mr Blair’s efforts to persuade Mr Bush to work through the UN before war against Iraq. He made “occasional, acid” interventions during the crucial Camp David summit and “during the following days and months he would be the constant disrupting force in the Anglo-American relationship”. Stephens adds: “If Donald Rumsfeld discomfited Blair with his public disdain for multilateralism, Cheney sought to undermine the Prime Minister privately.” Stephens is a political columnist on the Financial Times and the paper’s former political editor. His 250-page biography of Mr Blair was commissioned by the publishers Viking to meet an urgent demand from Americans for more information about the Prime Minister and his family. Since Mr Blair became Mr Bush’s closest ally in the war on terrorism he has become universally popular with Americans, not least for his ability to describe al-Qaeda’s threat with an eloquence that the President cannot match. There has been widespread concern among Americans that Mr Blair’s intimate support for President Bush might have damaged his prospects of re-election. The book is published in America on February 5 and is expected to sell well in the Anglophile cities of New York and Washington.
January 24, 2004
2001: the visit when Cherie Blair put her views on execution
Cherie said Bush 'stole' power and tackled him on executions
TONY BLAIR has been embarrassed by his wife’s displays of open animosity towards President Bush, according to a forthcoming biography of the Prime Minister.
Cherie Blair is said to have made no secret of her conviction that Mr Bush “stole” the presidential election, and picked an argument with him over the death penalty during a private dinner.
The anecdotes are from early and summer of 2001 and I noticed what you did...it does not appear to reflect Cherie Blair's current attitude toward President Bush.
Didn't stop some hotheads from ranting and raving in a petty fashion and making infantile fools of themselves.
The Stolen Votomatic.
My notes (made in 2000) follow.
Forgotten in the hectic closing days of the Florida fiasco is the matter of the stolen Votomatic.
It was found after the election by Palm Beach police in the car trunk of one Mr. Slosberg (sp?) a Democrat politician who was not a member of any canvassing board.
Treating it as a possible theft the police dropped the case when the Democratic leader of the Palm Beach Canvassing Board, Ms. LaPorte, decided not to press charges.
It was, obviously, entirely incorrect for this to be treated as only an attempted theft. This Votomatic could have been used to fabricate votes for Al Gore. It could have also been used to create 'overvotes' thus spoiling any ballots that voters made for Bush. (Gang-punching votes for Gore on voters' ballots would spoil those which were originally voted for Bush.)
It could have been used to fabricate votes in Palm Beach or in other nearby Florida counties such as Broward or Miami-Dade. It could have been used after the election or before the election.
Snotty British morons should learn more about that election before making fools of themselves.
Oh, I want to go off subject for a sec. I surfed around last night and landed on CSPAN where I saw John Edwards' wife, Elizabeth, for the first time. She was doing one of those campaign at a private home thingys, and she actually brought up President Bush going around wearing jeans and a big belt buckle and driving a nice shiny truck and she basically said these were all props and that they, the Edwards, drive a real pickup, the kind that gets rust in the back.
I sat there marveling, and thinking that never in my wildest dreams would I hear Laura Bush at a reachout putting down those dems in such a personal way. But there it was.
Just an interesting side note when I saw your truck reference.
Interesting. Actually, you cannot be pro-choice and be Christian at the same time. That means that poor ol' George Bush is married to a heathen ~ same as Tony Blair and Bill Clinton.
Hillary puked under my apartment door once, but I was never introduced to Laura or this Blair woman ~ no doubt they are similarly prepared. Sometimes I actually feel sorry for these guys ~ doesn't last long but it happens.
Word has it that the world-famous Pinocchio brews a pot of tea every afternoon and savors it in his flat in Charing Cross and has done so ever since Gepeto died of mad cow disease last year.
The Wooden Wonder in recent years was the star pupil of "Baghdad Bob" at the now-defunct Saddam Hussein Institute for Truth (otherwise known by its acronym, which, appropriately, is simply ....... 8~)
I've witnessed this behavior by liberals at parties more than once.
Miss Marple and I have noted here on FR that this is a quite common liberal quality. My latest example, of several I have encountered, is a family member attending the family Christmas dinner wearing a Dennis Kucinich t-shirt with HUGE lettering.
Perhaps that view has something to do with the fact that FReepers generally shoot straight, walk tall, skillfully rope livestock, eat red meat, wear white hats, and are not at all afraid of fresh bull$#!t dropped in our paths on a daily basis......
You are a fool who doesn't understand that the person who gets the most votes in a state wins that state. Bush took Florida....over and over and over. Get over it.
I have a high tolerance, Admin Mod, for these types, but perhaps this one can be ushered on out.
That has intrigued me, the fact that the opposition sees most Freepers as cowboys. Interesting.
And instructive. I'm highly amused by the yahoos who think calling someone a ''cowboy'' is an insult. When they do that, it proves a couple of things: A)They're either stupid or ignorant of American culture, and B)They have exhausted their repertoire of debating skills & are acting like 7 year olds on the playground.
But she's a leftist and that means there is an inherent problem with being stupid and hypocritical. She never complained to Clinton about his support of the death penalty, or shoved documents in his face concerning it.
But the main thing Cherie should realize is, nobody elected her to anything. She's entitled to speak her mind on the issues, of course, but in the end those will count no more or less than anyone else's.
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