Could anything expose the oddness of Tony Blair’s politics more starkly? Faced with the prospect of a popular centre-left American Democrat taking on one of the most reactionary Republican presidents in recent history, this British Labour government isn’t celebrating with fireworks; it is sending out distress signals. No 10 is against the amiable Democratic frontrunner, Howard Dean, and is for the grim Republican, George W. Wouldn’t it be terrible, Blair’s people are whispering, if the Democrats plumped for a lefty? Dean is hardly Chairman Mao. He’s hardly Dennis Skinner, either. He is in favour of guns, the death penalty and tax breaks for big business. He is seen as a fiscal conservative in his own state, Vermont. He is an impeccably patriotic doctor. Al Gore, hardly a marginal figure, has backed him. But Dean is also anti-war, a vociferous and eloquent opponent of the Iraq conflict. He is ferociously anti-Bush and his strategy is to win back the Democrat heartland voters, and ditch the right-leaning New Democrats of the Clinton era. This may or may not turn out to be dangerous for Bush. But it certainly seems to be putting the frighteners on Downing Street. Blair’s friendship with, and admiration for, the US president, means he has to be against the reviving centre-left of America. Blair’s reputation is now entangled with Bush’s. If a dissident ex-secretary says Bush was determined on regime change in Iraq from day one, and adds that he saw no evidence that Saddam ever had weapons of mass destruction, those are two bricks through No 10’s windows. If Dean, or Clark, attacks Bush for an ill-thought-out and dishonest war, those are criticisms of Blair as well. Excerpted from a column by Jackie Ashley in ‘The Guardian’, January 15
