Political Skullduggery

A new report from London says that President Bush may have pushed his luck too far with his last friendly major international confrere.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair believes U.S. President George W. Bush "let him down badly" over the Mideast crisis, the Daily Mail reported Sunday.

Citing a senior Blair government source, the newspaper said the alliance between the two leaders is in danger.

"We all feel badly let down by Bush," the source said. "We thought we had persuaded him to take the Israel-Palestine situation seriously, but we were wrong. How can anyone have faith in a man of such low intellect?"

The report comes as Parliament prepares to hold an unusual summer session, to allow members to question the government's handling of Israel's war with Hezbollah and examine whether the recent terror plot in Britain was linked to Blair's Iraq war policy.

The newspaper said the reported rift between London and Washington is based on British anger over Bush's handling of the "road map" to peace between Israel and the Palestinians, which Bush agreed to just before the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.

"We have been banging on at them for three years about the need to address the Palestinian problem but they just won't engage," said a senior government source. "That is one of the reasons there is such a mess now."