Fascinating quote from Tony Blair about the president. Fascinating because it flies in the face of so much dumb liberal commentary about Bush:
“He is highly intelligent, and it’s not clotted by so many nuances that the meaning is obscured. The good thing about (Bush) is that once he does really think that an issue has to be tackled he has big reserves of courage for doing it, and he won’t really be diverted… I trust him, and that is extremely important at our level of politics.”
Say what you like about Blair but I think he gets Bush’s character right. Pity he sometimes listens to Karl Rove too much.
EURO ANTI-SEMITISM WATCH: In the same interview, David Margolick notes how one major anti-war campaigner, Labour MP, Tam Dalyell, uses classic anti-Semitic tropes to attack the prime minister:
quoted Labour Member of Parliament Tam Dalyell, the longest serving member of the House of Commons, as saying he thought Blair was unduly influenced by a cabal of Jewish advisors. Margolick said Dalyell named Peter Mandelson, a former Blair cabinet member, Lord Levy, Blair’s chief fund-raiser and Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, an Anglican who has a Jewish grandparent.
Charming, huh?
POT, PORN, AND AMERICA: I’m not sure I buy the statistic that pot, porn and illegal labor constitutes a black market worth ten percent of the official American economy. But I don’t doubt – who could? – that these industries are huge. Porn, mercifully, is legal, for the most part. But can you imagine the revenue gains for the government if the huge marijuana industry paid taxes and the money spent on trying to shut it down was actually used for something worthwhile?
QUOTE OF THE WEEK: “By the year 2002, we can have a federal government with a balanced budget or we can continue down the present path towards total fiscal catastrophe.” – Rep. Tom DeLay, R-Texas, 1995. Ah, but that was when there was a Democratic president. Now a Republican is in office, that “fiscal catastrophe” is vital public policy! Mike Kinsley nails Republican hypocrisy on deficits in Slate. Frankly, anyone who expects consistency from politicians is asking a little too much. All I worry about is the damage being done to the long-term health of the economy by the administration’s fiscal recklessness.
OKAY, OKAY: Like Glenn Reynolds, I’m besieged by people who think I’m wrong about the tone of Bush’s campaign speech last night. Fair enough. It’s a subjective judgment call, and I certainly respect those who took it otherwise. But what amazes me is the vituperative tone, and how many then accuse me of being anti-war, anti-Bush and anti-American. Me? Are politics so polarized that you have to either engage in hagiography or hatred of our leaders? Is there nothing permissible in between?
EQUALITY IN CANADA: While Republicans rally behind a man who believes private gay sex should be criminalized, the Canadian courts grant equal marriage rights. Given the enormous interaction of the two countries, the rate of immigration, the volume of travel and trade, this surely is a big deal.
The Dish 