“Yo, Bush! Start Treating Our Prime Minister With Respect”

I don’t quite get how the Bush-Blair-buttered-roll exchange shows the British PM to be the president’s “poodle,” but the British press has decided it does. “Yo, Bush! Start treating our prime minister with respect,” screamed the Daily Mirror, while the Guardian sniffs that Blair “all but offers to carry [Condoleezza Rice’s] bags.” Looking over the transcript, I don’t see it. (Not that it matters all that much; there’s a war on after all.) This isn’t to deny that Blair has made a fool of himself in relation to Bush over the past five years, all the while disregarding the plain will of the British people. But what shows Blair to be Bush’s poodle isn’t this particular exchange; it’s the relationship itself.