Blair kept quiet about Wolfowitz candidacy to World Bank: press

[Spazito]

Prime Minister Tony Blair (news - web sites) was informed by the Americans of their intention to nominate Paul Wolfowitz to head the World Bank (news - web sites), but he chose not to inform his European partners.

Blair was "sounded out" by Washington about Wolfowitz, US deputy defense secretary and one of the key architects of the Iraq (news - web sites) war, and let it be known "that he would not oppose" the nomination, The Financial Times newspaper reported Saturday.

snip

Blair chose to keep the proposed candidacy a secret from his Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown, who is involved in development issues, and from the leaders in other European capitals, to give US President George W. Bush (news - web sites) "discreet support" and the confidence of knowing that he "would not face united opposition" in Europe, the FT said.


When finally announced, Wolfowitz's nomination drew criticism for his neoconservative views and support for the Iraq war.

more

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1538&e=2&u=/afp/wbankuswolfowitzbritain

[thebigidea]

1. god, what an asshole. what do they HAVE on him?

and for you UK types, I must inform you that I can't read the words "Tony Blair" without thinking of the hideous Reeves and Mortimer version of him in a band with Robin Cook, Clinton, etc.

We now return to this regularly scheduled episode of "what the fuck is your problem, Tony?"

for 20 quid - what the FUCK is your problem, Tony?

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

2. Tony's problem...

...is that in this case, the alternatives to Tony are actually WORSE.

[Spazito]

3. Actually, a minority government with Labour having to work

with the Liberal Democrats to keep his government would be much better than what is happening there now.

I would prefer the Liberal Democrats to win a majority but I am, most of the time, a realist so a minority government is my next choice. It keeps the conservatives out of power and forces Blair left in order to stay in power, a win/win position, imo.

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

4. He seems to be kissing a lot of LD ass lately.

Oh, wait. There's an election coming up.

[Jade Fox]

5. Is there some way we could get the Hugh Grant character from the movie...

called "Love Actually" as Prime Minister? We watched that movie last night,
and there is this great scene in it where the "Prime Minister" tell the
Bush-like U.S. President to fuck off in front of the press. Its a great scene,
and I got the feeling I was seeing the Prime Minister the British wish they had.

[thebigidea]

6. Howard would more likely disintegrate in direct sunlight

... than become PM.

Surely the undead are not elligible...

[Benbow]

7. Well, not all of them but

for the Conservatives this weekend everything is on a knife-edge, after the sacking of Howard Flight MP for "saying the Conservatives would make more budget cuts than admitted if elected". Flight is not taking it lying down but is fighting back, with the support of his constituency party and local Conservative party members, and may stand at the election as an Independent Conservative.

I heard him say, on the radio news bulletin this afternoon, that 80 other Members of Parliament had telephoned him to express their support or sympathy. The Conservative leadership seems to have badly misjudged this.

[cliss]

11. Check out his earnings from 2003,

and the answer is quite clear. Money. Moolah. Dough. Cash, wads, Big,big bucks, promised and delivered. There was a thread in the LBN about Tony & Cherie Blair's income for the past 2 years.

Their tax return showed a remarkable JUMP in their earnings. Wonder where that came from?:smoke:

[daleo]

8. Wolfy has a new British girlfriend, and now a British poodle too.

Aren't Anglo-American relations grand?

[Benbow]

9. Gad, our PM is a frightful control freak and boot-licker,

disastrously mesmerised by people who have lots of money. I hope that this FT article sinks him.

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

10. I am just loving this whole row over the AG's Iraq invasion advice.

It just seems to drag on and on and on. Poor Tony. :)

[acmavm]

12. Tony Blair reminds me of an abused spouse.

.

[AP]

13. Just the other day I thought I saw a story about Labour expressing

concerns about Wolf. and working out their options.

[AP]

14. Source: anonymous people in Bush government. It's probably BS designed to

make Brown suspicious Blair.

[AP]

15. Downing St denies this story.

Downing Street has sought to deny this. A Downing Street official said: "We had a number of discussions with a number of different countries over possible candidates over a period of time. Like others, we were first notified of the decision to nominate Paul Wolfowitz on the day of the president's announcement." Treasury officials in London declined to comment.

...

Following a report in the Financial Times on March 1 that Mr Wolfowitz was a leading candidate for the US nomination, a senior UK Treasury official telephoned his US counterpart.

The US Treasury dismissed the story, according to British officials. A British diplomat, who contacted the administration, was told Mr Wolfowitz was not in the running.

[unhappycamper]

16. the Brits are actually awake and may decide to punish someone

who lies to them.

[struggle4progress]

17. Blair clashes with Cabinet over Wolfowitz nomination

<snip> International Development Secretary Hilary Benn is said to be furious that Blair kept him in the dark over the nomination, which was announced by President George Bush two weeks ago. <snip>

Wolfowitz has cited his experience as US assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs from 1982 to 1986, and as ambassador to Indonesia during the Reagan administration's final three years in the late 1980s.

But details are emerging of how he pandered to Indonesia's dictator, Suharto, who seized power in 1965-66 through a slaughter of hundreds of thousands of people. Rather than express pro-democracy arguments, Wolfowitz did little to stop the military's illegal occupation of East Timor, which resulted in more than 200,000 deaths. He also spent time helping to secure lucrative contracts for US business interests.

http://politics.guardian.co.uk/economics/story/0,11268,1446128,00.html