Blair's political flirtation with Edwards may come back to haunt him

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WHENEVER a US politician reaches the giddy heights of the presidential race, the scrutiny on his - and so far, it is always his - life reaches a level of intensity unmatched anywhere in the democratic world. Medical records, family matters, past friends and lovers, all are likely to be dragged into the spotlight. But there is one past flirtation in Mr Edwards’s recent past that may yet be dragged into the public domain. While the liaison may not do the North Carolina senator any harm, it may make life distinctly uncomfortable for his paramour: Tony Blair.

So far, Mr Blair has tried to stay away from the presidential fray, aware that his central role in the Iraq war has given him a national profile in the US, and earned him the adoration of Democrats and Republicans alike. In particular, he has steered well clear of Mr Kerry, ducking a meeting with him and certainly not endorsing a man he calculates lacks the charisma or drive to topple George Bush. Mr Blair has stuck to that position despite complaints from many Labour MPs that their party leadership should be lending support to the Democrats against one of the most right-wing Republican presidents in memory. Mr Blair, who has been Mr Bush’s closest international ally, has cut the number of Labour delegates to the Democrats’ nomination convention this summer, and warned ministers not to speak out for the Massachusetts senator.

The honourable gentleman from North Carolina is another matter entirely. Mr Blair welcomed Mr Edwards at a private meeting in Downing Street in December 2002, when the senator was touring Europe and trying to build up some experience of foreign affairs, an area where his CV is conspicuously thin. Do not underestimate the significance of this meeting: Mr Blair’s diary is only opened to foreign politicians he considers to have good prospects.

Hence his disastrous decision last year not to find the time to meet Jose Maria Zapatero, then the Spanish socialists’ leader, now the Spanish prime minister. And hence Mr Blair’s decision earlier this year to host France’s Nicholas Sarkozy at Downing Street, a meeting that was little noticed in Britain but raised eyebrows among the French political elite. Ordinarily, a visiting finance minister would only meet his opposite number at the Treasury, but Mr Sarkozy is no ordinary minister - he may yet be the nemesis of his party colleague, President Jacques Chirac. Furiously ambitious and laden with talent, Sarkozy is, in short, a man to get to know.

So it was with Mr Edwards. And in a sign of warmth never previously made public, Mr Blair did not stop at one meeting. As late as the Democratic primary elections this spring, the Prime Minister was happy to take telephone calls from his fellow lawyer, and to provide advice on foreign affairs, assistance he pointedly declined to give to Mr Kerry or the other contender, Howard Dean. Now that Mr Edwards is on the campaign trial, people around Mr Blair are starting to wonder if that earlier flirtation might come back to haunt him. Any association with the Prime Minister could be a valuable political asset for the Democrats, and especially a vice-presidential candidate who must have at least one eye on the top job at the 2008 election.




http://news.scotsman.com/opinion.cfm?id=781742004

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1. Interesting that Blairs' contacts w/Edwards were more than casual since

when Donna Brazile and Bill Richardson mentioned that Edwards had met with foreign heads of state I wondered who they were referring to and if any of the meetings went beyond just a brief hello and handshake. Bill Clinton and several others have made comments to the media about Edwards having much more F.P experience than Bush did before taking office.