The End of the Poodle

Does this mean the end of the Clinton Era or the end of the Bush era?

Tony Blair said Thursday he would step down as prime minister on June 27, closing a decade of power in which he fostered peace in Northern Ireland and followed the United States to a war in Iraq that cost him much of his popularity.

In a somber farewell, Blair made way for Treasury chief Gordon Brown to take the top post. The British leader looked overcome with emotion, struggling to retain his trademark broad grin as loud cheers rang out.

Following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the United States, it was right, Blair said, to "stand shoulder to shoulder with our oldest ally, and I did so out of belief."

"Hand on heart, I did what I thought was right," Blair told party workers and supporters at Trimdon Labour Club in his Sedgefield constituency in northern England. "I may have been wrong, but that's your call. But believe one thing if nothing else. I did what I thought was right for our country."

You really need to watch The Queen to see Blair's sleazy cozying up to power in action. He's a firefly to power, and his lasting legacy is going along with whoever is the most powerful person in the room. He combined the most destructive elements of Third Way-neoliberalism with the imperialist ends of neoconservatism. He's a neo's neo. And he will not be remembered well.

At least he had the sense to walk away at some point. Unlike the Attorney General, you know.