Thanks a bunch - Bush style

It appears at long last that Tony "why do I still have a job?" Blair may finally be finding out exactly what sort of repayment George W. Bush hands out to his lapdog "allies." Britiain holds the rotating presidential slot this year in the Group of 7 finance ministers meeting, held in London this year.

Struggling to regain some credibility with his citizens following his massively unpopular support of Dubya's adventure in Iraq, Blair had been pushing for some very popular debt relief for the poorest third world nations. Riding to the "rescue" was US Treasurey Department undersecretary John Taylor. He quickly put the brakes on that idea.

John Taylor, a Treasury under secretary, delivered a personal blow to the British chancellor of the exchequer, Gordon Brown, last week by putting the kibosh on Mr. Brown's ambitious proposal for cutting third-world debt. Mr. Taylor was standing in for his boss, Treasury Secretary John Snow, at the Group of 7 finance ministers meeting in London. One United Nations official joked that Mr. Snow probably caught the flu because he did not want to be the Grim Reaper at the meeting.

No problem. Mr. Taylor played that role admirably. If this is Tony Blair's repayment for putting his political career on the line to support President Bush in Iraq, then Mr. Blair might want to rethink that so-called special relationship.

I hope that this is one of many clear signals to Tony that the president isn't looking out for anyone but himself. Further, Blair's stark hopes of being elected to another term as Prime Minister will be completely flushed down the crapper if he goes along with yet another war in Iran.