Cherie [Blair] said Bush 'stole' power and tackled him on executions

London Times | January 24, 2003 | London Times

[ejdrapes]

January 24, 2004

2001: the visit when Cherie Blair put her views on execution

Cherie said Bush 'stole' power and tackled him on executions

By Nicholas Wapshott in New York, Philip Webster and David Charter

TONY BLAIR has been embarrassed by his wife’s displays of open animosity towards President Bush, according to a forthcoming biography of the Prime Minister.

Cherie Blair is said to have made no secret of her conviction that Mr Bush “stole” the presidential election, and picked an argument with him over the death penalty during a private dinner.

Although the Prime Minister was pragmatic about Mr Bush’s victory, Mrs Blair was far less sanguine about the Supreme Court decision that gave him the keys to the White House. She believed Al Gore had been “robbed” of the presidency and was hostile to the idea of her husband “cosying” up to the new President.

Even as they flew to Washington for their first meeting with the presidential couple, Mrs Blair was in no mood to curry favour, the book Tony Blair: The Making of a World Leader by Philip Stephens, states. “Cherie Blair still believed that Bush had stolen the White House from Gore,” he wrote. She asked more than once during the journey why they had to be so nice to “these people”.

Mrs Blair scarcely concealed her impatience as the Blair team debated on the plane whether the gift he had brought for the President, a bust of Winston Churchill, was of sufficient quality for the Oval Office. They decided to find a better one and that Mr Blair would tell the President it was on its way. Mrs Blair was annoyed at the fuss but was overruled. Another bust was delivered months later.

The book’s disclosures of Mrs Blair’s forthright views will cause embarrassment in Downing Street, because of Mr Blair’s good working relations with Mr Bush, and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, although they will not surprise officials or ministers who know her well. She is known for expressing her views forcefully in private.

Stephens writes that Mrs Blair behaved impeccably at her first meeting with the President “for all her outspoken resentment on the flight” and “to the great relief of her husband and aides” she had been at pains to make friends with Laura Bush.

But when the Bushes came to Britain in the summer of 2001, Mrs Blair, “more tribal in her politics than Tony”, according to a close family friend, embarrassed her husband. As the two couples sat down to dinner, with the officials no longer there, Mrs Blair could not resist an argument. She is a human rights lawyer and turned to the death penalty, a subject on which she has blunt views.

Judicial executions were an immoral violation of human rights, an affront under the US Constitution as much as under European laws to the fundamental principles of justice, she said. This opinion was delivered to a man who as Governor of Texas signed warrants for more than 150 executions.

Mr Blair was reported to have “squirmed”, even though he shares her opposition to the death penalty. The author says that when he asked Mr Blair about the incident during research for the book he looked uncomfortable — all he would say was that Cherie had raised the issue but as far as he was concerned the United States and Britain simply had different systems.

A Downing Street spokesman said: “She has always had a good relationship with President Bush and has of course discussed many issues with him, including capital punishment. The discussions have always been good-natured.”

Stephens also states that later in the evening Mr Bush had been embarrassed by his wife. Laura Bush had made it clear that her views on abortion were a great deal more liberal than his.

Mrs Blair, who is writing a book about prime ministers’ spouses, has made her forthright views known several times in situations that have caused alarm at No 10. She issued an apology after saying during a visit to Britain by Queen Rania of Jordan in June 2002 that young Palestinians “feel they have got no hope but to blow themselves up”. Last month she said that “Saudi Arabia’s image in the world is appalling” over its treatment of women, in a speech in front of the Saudi Ambassador.

Stephens’s book also reveals the coolness shown by Vice- President Cheney in his early meetings with Mr Blair and how Mr Cheney showed his hostility later on to Mr Blair’s efforts to persuade Mr Bush to work through the UN before war against Iraq. He made “occasional, acid” interventions during the crucial Camp David summit and “during the following days and months he would be the constant disrupting force in the Anglo-American relationship”. Stephens adds: “If Donald Rumsfeld discomfited Blair with his public disdain for multilateralism, Cheney sought to undermine the Prime Minister privately.”

Stephens is a political columnist on the Financial Times and the paper’s former political editor. His 250-page biography of Mr Blair was commissioned by the publishers Viking to meet an urgent demand from Americans for more information about the Prime Minister and his family. Since Mr Blair became Mr Bush’s closest ally in the war on terrorism he has become universally popular with Americans, not least for his ability to describe al-Qaeda’s threat with an eloquence that the President cannot match.

There has been widespread concern among Americans that Mr Blair’s intimate support for President Bush might have damaged his prospects of re-election.

The book is published in America on February 5 and is expected to sell well in the Anglophile cities of New York and Washington.

[Citizen Soldier]

Sounds like cherie is hillary's evil (and tacky) twin sister! She obviously prefers to spend her time with the clintons! I would never even think of being a guest at someones home and start an argument! Very unclassy!

[MEG33]

Cherie has problems of her own to handle.The Brits love their scandal.

[Wally_Kalbacken]

Well Mrs. Blair - screw you and the horse you rode in on!

[faithincowboys]

The hysterical thing is that Cherie never brought up this topic with Clintoon. Of course, Bubba supports the death penalty and executed a retarded black man as Governor of Arkansas-- why in the Hell does the Left get a pass? I am freaking amazed by the hypocrisy.

[ScudEast]

Cherie is nothing but an embarassment, to her husband and the rest of the country. The criminal-consorting, hypocritical, spurious "human rights" lawyering, crystal gazing bint. I wouldn't worry about anything this dumb cow has to say.

[lorrainer]

*yawn*

Isn't she on Absolutely Fabulous?

[Rainmist]

Laura should have b***h-slapped her !!

[america-rules]

"The hysterical thing is that Cherie never brought up this topic with Clintoon. Of course, Bubba supports the death penalty and executed a retarded black man as Governor of Arkansas-- why in the Hell does the Left get a pass? I am freaking amazed by the hypocrisy."

Hell yea

I thought of this while reading it !

[Rightwing Conspiratr1]

Laura Bush had made it clear that her views on abortion were a great deal more liberal than his.

Comments?

[Stallone]

Socialism is a women's disease.

[Mo1]

Either Cheri lacks class .. or this book is to help Tony get re-elected

I'm thinking it might be a little of both

[OneTimeLurker]

"Laura Bush had made it clear that her views on abortion were a great deal more liberal than his."

Anybody know if this is true?

[dennisw]

Cherie Blair is L³ all the way. Looney left liberal. A chowderhead. Britain is full of these cranks. I will however give her credit for being woman enough to bear 4 children

[MEG33]

I've known that for years.She isn't President.

[Notwithstanding]

The Drudgemeister links to YOUR post at FR!

Woohoo!

[jaykay]

Will England take all of the murderers on death row off of our hands? They are more than welcome to them as far as I'm concerned. They used to ship theirs to Australia didn't they? We can dump ours on England.

[Bonaparte]

Gotta feel sorry for Tony. His job is hard enough without his wife making things worse.

[jla]

Laura Bush had made it clear that her views on abortion were a great deal more liberal than his.

It's not a secret that Mrs. Bush is pro-choice and she hasn't been hesitant about saying it.

[ambrose]

Another bitch from hell who doesn't realize that not a single person cast a vote for her.

[GeronL]

the hypocrisy is amazing. Like Mike Moore saying the war in Kosovo was a war on innocent women and children and then he endorses the General who ran that war for President.

[GeronL]

"those people"

notice how liberals love to look down on others??

[cameo1440]

Mrs. Blair is voicing an opinion that betrays a lack of understanding of the American system of voting, the checks and balances with the electoral college and so on. As to the death penalty in Texas, that is a mandated thing by Texas law that those whose level of capitol crime reaches a certain point, i.e. serial killers, etc., are executed. Just because a man is governor does not mean he can reverse those decisions. From a practical standpoint, the death penalty is a very expensive proposition because of legal stays of execution, and delaying tactics built into our legal system. DNA evidence is something new which can correct the system of justice.

[GeronL]

are we not allowed to disagree with her?? don't we have free speech too??

quit whining

[ambrose]

Never argue with a DU troll that just signed up today.

[cameo1440]

I wonder what Cherie Blair makes of the war in Iraq. Should Saddam Hussein have justice by the Iraqis?

[CorranH96]

Amazing that nick_davis happened to join on 1-24-04 and happened to post on the very article that is on the drudgereport.

[Hillarys Gate Cult]

Yes. The only body who can stop an execution in Texas is The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles. It seems some people have been watching too many movies or listening to too many liberals.

[ambrose]

What I find interesting is the Rats never seemed to have a problem with the Texas penal system while Ma Richards was governor.

What lying scumbag hypocrites they are. All of them.

[kingu]

Woah.. I thought Drudge didn't want to link to FreeRepublic anymore. Could it be that things are finally thawing?

[mmorgan21]

Please excuse my disjointed thoughts, but the morals this country were founded upon did allow the death of capital offenders according to article V of the Constitution. An abhorrence does not constitute uneducation, and Mrs. Blair's act of disagreement does not make her the possesser of a valid argument. I disagree with President Bush on plenty, but I have no problem executing the absolute worst of humanity.

[Eagle in NYC]

Well, the uncouth, big mouthed, lawyer wife (I wonder if she has huge thighs like Hillary too?) certainly knows nothing about the U.S. Electoral College nor about criminal justice - the crime rates in the UK have skyrocketed past those in the U.S.

So take your pompous disdain for our criminal system and shove it up your bulbous, cellulite buttocks you thick twit. I say, jolly good, that.

I mean did ANYONE actually ASK what this ill-mannered woman thought about the subjects? I know I didn't.

And look at the picture, at her jutting jaw. A previous poster wrote: "Screw you and the horse you rode in on!" But I think it more likely that she rode in on a broom. Again, the parallels with Hillary are staggering.

And look at the Prime Minister. He might be embarassed by her lack of manners, but look at his right hand. He's supporting his wife.

[fr_freak]

It is absolutely terrible that so many people could post responses to this story which are so uneducated and benign.

Before you go accusing others of being uneducated, I suggest you look the word "benign" up in the dictionary and then rethink whether it made sense in your context.

[RIGHT IN LAS VEGAS]

She reminds me of the Canadian border agent I was asked to speak to travelling from Seattle to BC., by car.

I was asked by the asian/canadian crossing guard if me, as an American, left my guns and dogs home. I was driving my car which had AZ. plates. (I won't explain which state issued(az))

After 2 hours of bull&^ap from the ice guys, I was allowed to leave.

All the while I was ridiculed, I looked at this canuck with a large photo of the queen behind him. I kept my cool.

I wanted to ask him who was in the photo behind him.

my question to the rice/canuck

IS THAT THE CANADIAN VERSION OF AUNT JEMIMA?:):):)

[RIGHT IN LAS VEGAS]

hey cherie, the Irish wil make you bend over for zimbabwe!

:)

[bernie_g]

You might also want to consider this from a domestic UK point of view. Mr Blair is facing a very tough couple of weeks, culminating with the report of the Hutton enquiry. While Hutton is likely to share blame for Dr Kelly's death equally between Gilligan, his management and the Government, it's still very bad news coming on top of e.g. David Kay's resignation and other lack-of-WMD stories.

His very clever PR people are perfectly capable of leaking this story to manufacture a fake controversy that will tend to suggest that he's not a total poodle of Mr Bush. This right now, is something that he desperately needs to do.

In the US, I get the idea that nobody is too bothered about the lack of credible evidence of WMD. Here in the UK, the only way Blair could get support for war was making very strong claims about it, which have turned out to be false and now his own party are seriously wondering if it's time to scrag him and replace him with e.g. Gordon Brown.

The left here are already building a 'story' about this in our media. Both BBC's Panorama and C4's Dispatches have just produced very critical (of Gilligan also) programmes which are suggesting that our intelligence gathering systems were subverted for political ends. Blair also looks like he's going to try to blame his intelligence people and I doubt that they are going to take that lying down either.

So he desperately needs anything that will distract the media and distance him from Mr Bush's policies to help him survive the next few weeks. My guess is that this was leaked as part of a 10 Downing Street spin campaign to do just that.

[Miss Marple]

Find me a source on your statement that Laura is pro-choice. I don't believe you will find one.

This is an author's account of a private dinner conversation. Four people were present. Since I am quite sure the author was not one of the four, he is getting his information either from one of the principals directly or is inferring things from gossip and others' conjecture.

I know for certain that the President and Mrs. Bush would never disclose a private conversation. I am also certain that Tony Blair would not.

Therefore, we are left with Cherie as the only person who could possibly have spoken to the author. Somehow, I don't think this is an accurate accounting of the conversation, myself.

[r_u_sirius]

" I would never even think of being a guest at someones home and start an argument! Very unclassy!"


She was in her own home when they discussed the death penalty.

[i]But when the Bushes came to Britain in the summer of 2001, Mrs Blair, “more tribal in her politics than Tony”, according to a close family friend, embarrassed her husband. As the two couples sat down to dinner, with the officials no longer there, Mrs Blair could not resist an argument. She is a human rights lawyer and turned to the death penalty, a subject on which she has blunt views.[/i]

[jla]

We all know she gave her opinion that Roe v. Wade should be left alone. And if one supports Roe v. Wade then how could they be anything but pro-choice?

I am not going to get into an argument about this. The President's wife is a very lovely, intelligent, charming & pretty lady.
She just happens to also be pro-choice.

[jla]

(Just to mix things up a bit)

Find me a source stating that Laura is Pro-Life. I don't believe you will find one. ;^)

[Godebert]

Laura Bush had made it clear that her views on ABORTION were a great deal more LIBERAL than his.

I wonder how much influence she has upon her husband? Does anyone know if she is even Christian?

[5050 no line]

Mrs Blair needs to keep her nose out of what does not concern her in the culture and way of life in the US.

It is well known that, with the recent rocketing crime figures and the liberal and ineffectual criminal 'justice' system over here in the UK, that 75 % of the general population wish for the death penalty to be re-instated, and have done so for many years. It is only our 'liberal' so called representatives in the Government (of both colours, I have to say) who deny us a proper vote this. This is on the grounds that 'they know better' and 'it is incompatible with the EU legislation'.

This is the fabled 'human rights' legislation that is now blocking up our courts and preventing us from sending the dross of illegal immigrants back to where they came from on the grounds that they may receive unjust and inhumane treatment if they are returned!!!!(and thereby posing a serious security threat, incidentally). The courts even declare that the rest of the bl**dy EU is such a state!!!

It is from within this cesspool that Mrs Blair, QC, and her band of legal slime in her company, the Matrix Chambers, are making their millions by spinning out the appeals of these rascal 'asylum seekers' with no justifiable cases, and other irresponsible scum seeking 'justice' (= money, money, gimme, gimme) from the courts.

We have even recently had a jailor lose his job for openly referring to UBL as 'a terrorist', that just might have caused offence to some jail-visiting Muslims who just might have overheard. Fergawdsake. Give me strength to carry on in this once proud and patriotic country as it descends into the politically correct, ineffectual morass of irrational idealism, socialism, and leaderless Europe.

You Yanks take good note, don't follow us in the UK. From what I read on this site, I am sure there is enough backbone still around over there ensure that you will not!

IN HOT, Release, 50:50 - no line error - OUT.

[backhoe]

The hysterical thing is that Cherie never brought up this topic with Clintoon. Of course, Bubba supports the death penalty and executed a retarded black man as Governor of Arkansas-- why in the Hell does the Left get a pass? I am freaking amazed by the hypocrisy.

Precisely.

[Impeach the Boy]

She is a liberal...and TRUTH be DAMNED (as with ALL Liberals)

[Eagle in NYC]

And speaking about “Cherie”, she has as much class as the other faux French-named woman on this side of the pond, “Paris”.

And isn’t it typical that the European Left, as here in America, lay claim to being too “sophisticated” and “nuanced” for us hillbillies, cowboys, rednecks and hicks? Witness her arrogance regarding our stance on the morality of the death penalty. But yet Cherie is so UNsophisticated that even her husband is embarrassed by her antics.

Similarly, the French ambassador to Britain famously remarked two years ago at a London party, that “Israel was a sh***y little country.”

Yeah, THEY’RE “sophisticated” all right.

[Tilly]

Godebert:

Laura's from a mostly died in the wool democratic family. However, I doubt that she votes against George W.

Wondering whether or not she is Christian is silly.

I will point out, however, that while she may be pro-choice, or liberal, or whatever ... I highly doubt that she will make disparaging remarks about the head of state of one of our closest allies.

As to how much influence she has ... I remember way back when, before George W. ran for President ... there was a LOT of news coverage here in Texas that he was trying to get his wife to agree to his running. She did not particularly want to do it, and it held off on announcing until he got her agreement and support for the his campaign.

I think that this shows basic respect between a married couple. It was refreshing to see a president's wife who wasn't eager to get her mitts on Presidential power and influence.

I believe we can depend on Laura not to embarrass either the President or the US. And, I'm sure her hospitality to the Blairs will remain impeccable, and probably genuinely friendly.


Cherie Blair has the right to express her opinion, just like Madonna has the right to stick her tongue down Britney Spear's throat. And, we also have the right to form our OWN opinions about the acts.

Incidentally ... don't you think that Tony and Cherie are politically savvy enough to play good cop, bad cop?

[cupcakes]

Laura Bush is not the only woman who is idiotic on this issue.