Among the things that the personnage "George Bush" and the personne George Bush share are the attitudes of bullying and querulousness, as in "What have you done for me today?"

Once again, poor Tony Blair has not done enough. Marie Wolfe in "Bush strikes blow to Blair's hopes of global warming deal" for the Independent writes,

As G8 leaders prepared to gather in Gleneagles for Wednesday's summit, the US President signalled that there would be no quid pro quo on climate change.

In an apparent snub to Tony Blair, who has been trying to get the US on board over global warming, Mr Bush said he was heading to the G8 "with an agenda that I think is best for our country". Asked by Sir Trevor McDonald, in an interview to be broadcast tonight on ITV1, whether the Prime Minister could expect "unstinting support" because of Britain's backing for Iraq, Mr Bush replied: "You know, Tony Blair made decisions on what he thought was best for the people of Great Britain, and I made decisions on what I thought was best for Americans. I really don't view our relationship as one of quid pro quo."

In fact, BushCo views every relationship as involving a quid pro quo. It's just that it's all quid and no quo.

I have to wonder if a factor in BushCo's recalcitrance over global warming at the G8 summit is the emerging Anglo-American split over Iraq and the issue of British troop withdrawal. If the British begin to withdraw troops, they can forget any thanks for a job already done.

Related posts
A slight shudder and a pulling-away (5/16/05)
Brits and Americans divided over Iraq pullout as Afghanistan slides toward civil war (6/29/05)