• Joe Conason discusses why Tony Blair has such broad appeal in the United States, and why, because even New Labour liberalism is too left-wing for the Washington neo-conservatives to tolerate, the love affair can’t last.
  • Elsewhere in the Guardian, Martin Kettle reports that before Blair departed for the March 18 Iraq debate in Parliament, “Downing Street had drawn up contingency plans for the withdrawal of British troops from the build-up in the Gulf and also for Blair’s resignation, should the votes have gone against him.”
  • The Times reports more serious fightin’ wurds being aimed at Syria
    • One thing the New York Times and Washington Post do far better than the British broadsheets is weekend magazines. We get inane columns by Julie Burchill; they get in-depth reports on the politics behind the estate tax repeal.</ul>