Howard Hitched To Bush's Sinking Star:

"By becoming Bush's best buddy, Howard was able to strut the stage. He could have sleep-overs at the President's Texas ranch. He could be dubbed the 'man of steel'. And by refusing Bush's brief detour to Australia to be regarded as an official state visit, Howard was able to keep the Governor-General out of the way for photo opportunities. Our Prime Minister has appropriated Dubya as wholeheartedly as, years earlier, Margaret Thatcher appropriated Ronald Reagan. Or as Howard's mentor, Robert Menzies, embraced the young Queen.

Bush is on the nose in the US and Iraq, despite the grandstanding about 'the handover of sovereignty' that is dividing the Republican Party as deeply as it has British Labour. When William F. Buckley Jr, who is to American conservatism what the Pope is to Rome, joins in the growing unease about the war in Iraq, you know that Bush is whacked.

... Howard, who still pretends that Iraq is a triumph and that Bush is a great President, has to get us to the polls before George and Laura start packing their mementos into the tea chests provided by Lone Star Removals and retreat to the ranch. "