John O'Sullivan: Blair May Tip Plan B On Visit With Bush

The Chicago Sun-Times ^ | June 7, 2005 | John O'Sullivan

[quidnunc]

George W. Bush's best European friend — Britain's prime minister, Tony Blair — is in Washington today for talks with the administration. He arrives at a momentous time in Euro-American affairs. France and Holland have just rejected the proposed European Constitution. Blair Monday "shelved" the British referendum required for its ratification. And most of the political pundits have pronounced it "dead."

So Bush will naturally want to know what his old friend thinks about all this.

You might suppose that Blair would be somewhat embarrassed by this question. After all, he supports the constitution. He also supports the European Union's plans to build a defense organization separate from NATO (and he persuaded Bush to withdraw his very sensible objections to it). He even wants the British to abandon their own currency and join the now shaky euro. And he was among those predicting Chaos and Old Night if the constitution was rejected as it has been.

But Blair is famous, as his admirers put it, for snatching victory from the jaws of defeat, or as his detractors think, for taking refuge in outright fantasy. So Blair will present an optimistic upbeat account of how he, as the EU's next rotating president, will exploit the constitution's difficulties to reshape the EU along free market, Atlanticist and pro-American lines. Not Chaos and Old Night but a golden dawn beckons.

-snip-

[Red Badger]

Is this Plan B From Outer Space??????

[An Old Marine]

No matter how Tony dances eventually Britain is going to have to decide if she wants to join the socialist "Old Europeans" in their mutual suicide pact or join America in the 21st Century.

The results are still up for grabs

[Righty_McRight]

I asked a brit friend of mine what he thought about the EU Constitution. He said "We didn't want to be part of the Eurofest anyway, when are you yanks going to figure out how to tow our whole island to America"

[GodBlessRonaldReagan]

"Ah, yes, Plan 9. Resurrection of the dead."

Hopefully someone will drive a stake through the EU constitution and it'll stay dead.