Bush and Blair scheming against Chirac?

Reading between the lines of Bush and Blair’s unintentionally public conversation, you get the impression that they might have been “strategerizing” about how best to gang-up on their old adversary, Jacques Chirac. According to the Sky News transcript their exchange on the Doha Round went like this:

Bush: Who is introducing the trade

Blair: Angela

Bush: Tell her to call ’em

Blair: Yes

Bush: Tell her to put him on them on the spot. [sic]

Now, combine this with today’s story in the Guardian about how Blair was looking to put renewed pressure on Chirac to cut farm subsidies and you can have a pretty good guess about who Bush wants his new best friend Angela to put “on the spot.”

The other revealing exchange is when Blair makes clear that he’s prepared to go to the Middle East in Condi’s place because there’s less pressure on him to actually broker a deal. Check it out after the jump.

Bush: It’s a process, I agree. I told her your offer to…

Blair: Well…it’s only if I mean… you know. If she’s got a…, or if she needs the ground prepared as it were… Because obviously if she goes out, she’s got to succeed, if it were, whereas I can go out and just talk. 

Bush and Blair can’t be too unhappy about this conversation becoming public. Neither of them said anything scandalous or compromising. (Although, it would be interesting to know who Bush and Blair think of as “sweet” and “honey” respectively.) Indeed, Bush’s use of an expletive guaranteed that his criticism of Syria was heard around the world and helped turn the focus from Israel’s actions to Syria’s. One can’t help but wonder if Bush and Blair picked up an idea from the fictional West Wing?