Good for Karl Rove

Anne Applebaum in the Washington Post on the Republican "snub" of the British Tories in town for the convention.

For all the talk of needing allies and of wanting more countries involved in Iraq, for all the blather about strong historical links to Britain, I don't believe that the White House, deep down, wants anything out of foreigners except obedience.

What really annoys the WashPo is that the WashPo no longer is pivotal in deciding who and who won't get White House access. The Tories have, since Michael Howard took over leadership, ceased to be Opposition. Infighting in the party defeated the conservatives. Michael Howard is just the ascendancy of the disastrous John Major turncoat branch of the party. It's equivalent to Bill Weld in Massachusetts or Jeff Jeffords in Vermont.

Notice the neutrality of the writer? /sarcasm off Bear that in mind if you ever decide to buy Gulag. She's the author of the weighty tome on the Soviet prison camps that never once in all the 900-plus pages had a single moral condemnation to say against the system. She chronicled all the millions, all the misery, but failed to notice the abhorrance, the evil.