Blair not my poodle, Bush says [View All]

[kskiska]

Source: AFP

Blair not my poodle, Bush says Jun 26 07:37 PM US/Eastern Outgoing British Prime Minister Tony Blair, often caricatured as US President George W. Bush's poodle, is no such thing, Bush said in an interview published Wednesday.

In comments printed the day Blair is set to vacate his Downing Street offices, Bush told The Sun tabloid from Washington that he also wished he had Blair's oratory skills.

"I've heard he's been called Bush's poodle," the president said of Blair, who has been heavily criticised in Britain for his decision to stand by the United States first in its invasion of Iraq in 2003, and later in its refusal to criticise Israel for its bombing of Lebanon last summer.

"He's bigger than that. This is just background noise, a distraction from big things. This kind of thing is just silly ridicule and that's how I treat it."

(snip)

The president acknowledged, however, that the pair had very different speaking styles: "He's much more kind of lofty and eloquent than I am. I tend to be just pretty matter of fact."

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