WHY I LOVE MAGGIE

Tony Blair refused to concede that he was basically in favor of President Bush’s National Missile Defense plan – when he was in the House of Commons yesterday. But his spin-meister, Alistair Campbell, subsequently told the press that the British government backs Bush. Why the discrepancy? Blair heads an anti-American party in which he is strangely isolated. So he mumbles in Parliament and sends his spinners out to explain to the public what he really feels. I’m with Thatcher on this one. She has immediately endorsed NMD, despite having once been a skeptic, and told Blair to stop “shilly-shallying” and to champion Bush’s “bold vision” at every international forum. God, I miss her.