Blair promises to quit if Kelly report shows he lied to MPs

[missile_bender]

in The Telegraph

Tony Blair's role in the naming of Dr David Kelly was thrust back into the spotlight yesterday when he said he would resign if the Hutton Inquiry showed he had lied to Parliament.

The Prime Minister stood by his denial of responsibility for the leaking of the weapons scientist's name shortly before he committed suicide.

Mr Blair was forced on the defensive by Michael Howard, the Conservative leader, during heated Commons exchanges, which were seen as a dress-rehearsal for a full-scale clash when Lord Hutton's report is published.

--more

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Resign? Not bloody likely.

Blair's already spinning. Note the qualification of his offer to resign. "Mr. Blair issued a carefully-worded statement saying he stood by the 'totality' of comments in July in which he denied that he authorised the naming of Dr Kelly to the press as the source of the BBC's report on the 'sexing-up' of the Iraq weapons dossier....He appeared to be drawing a distinction between the government's strategy of providing clues about Dr. Kelly's identity and confirming his name once it was obtained by the media, and actually leaking it beforehand."

<P>He only gave clues, not the name? He'll only step down if you correctly define what "is" is.

Unembedded.com

[Benhurst]

1. The nasty little turd knows his ass is already covered. n/t

[nadinbrzezinski]

2. Oh so Nixonian

Did blair take classes at the Milhaus Nixon School of Bad Government?

(for the Record Nixon did SOME GOOD THINGS OK... it is just that Watergate thing, which looks like a boy scout compared to this crew... these boys went International)

[hang a left]

3. This must mean he has read it.

[daleo]

4. I promise to quit if I am found to have been a liar

Honestly. Wait, come back. Ok, well best two out of three then.

[UTUSN]

5. Buh-BYE, Tony! n/t

[DrBB]

6. Wasn't O'Reilly gonna do that too?

Gave himself a deadline, too. No WMD by--what, July? something like that--he was going to quit or something wasn't he? Still up there on Fox blathering away last time I looked.

And shit, he's got more principle than Blair. Not that it's saying much.

[DoYouEverWonder]

7. What difference does this report make?

Either he lied or he didn't and that should be all that matters. I think Tony is old enough to know the difference.

[jmatthan]

8. Not in "totality"

where part can be lies, part half-truths and a small part - truths.

In "totality" only the truths part can be counted as the rest are lies and half-truths and not countable amongst the "totality" of truths.

Hope the definition of "totality" is now clear to this august audience!!

Jacob Matthan
http://www.findians.com/educated.html
Oulu, Finland

[DoYouEverWonder]

10. These folks sure know how to say something

without saying anything at all. Especially when they say it with a British accent.

Tony just sounds so sincere when he utters his carefully crafted statements. However, Tony knows he's a liar and he will have to suffer from the burden of his lies for the rest of his life. He is one of the few that I think is actually tormented by this stuff.

[indepat]

9. Wonder if anyone else will resign if proven to have lied to their "parlia-

ment" on material issues?

[goforit]

11. Wow!!!......What will the Brits do given a challange like this?

Hmmmmm..........

And the race is off!!!