The American press corps isn't the only group anxious to see President Bush leave office in January — the Brits are twiddling their thumbs just as much. The Guardian's Bill Blanko, who refers to said American press corps as a "bunch of toadies," lays into the current leader of the free world, and his list of complaints is lengthy. Among them: "His sneering performance this week at his press conference with Gordon Brown in the Locarno Room (which lobby correspondents much prefer visiting for Foreign Office drinks parties) confirmed that he obviously loathes us. And after his surly verbal swipes at journalists, in between such horrendous Bushisms as "white-guy Methodists" (imagine the row if a British politician used a phrase like that), the feeling was mutual."

But most of all, what really bags Blanko is a little thing called alcohol — and the fact that the president doesn't drink any. And that the D.C. media doesn't drink enough.

… most members of the lobby here at Westminster are about as fond of George Bush as we are of a 1pm press conference (as David Davis inflicted on us last week) that ruins our lunch arrangements. Or a Blackpool party conference in a wet week in October.

Well, for a start, the president doesn't drink.

[...]

And another thing (as the taxi drivers say) … why is it that in Washington restaurants the snooty wine waiters think you're an alcoholic if you order a second or third glass of wine, never mind a second or third bottle? I remember the lobby dining collectively in Washington (as we do) during one visit and almost coming to blows with a wine waiter who kept taking the bottles away from our table rather than leave them for us to top ourselves up (as we do).

Perhaps they would've been happier, then, if Hillary Clinton had scored the nomination?:

[Guardian]