The American Spectator

p> AMONG THE BUSH RESENTERS br> In his public and private speeches, former President Bill Clinton has been going out of his way to bash the Bush Administration’s Iraq policy and foreign policy generally. In a most recent address, he belittled the current administration’s foreign relations as belligerent, intolerant, and shortsighted. If that sounds a lot like the French and German lines, it’s because Messrs. Jacques Chirac and Gerhard Schroeder have probably been getting them from Clinton. Both foreign leaders have stayed in touch with Clinton and, according to a current Clinton aide, have talked to the ex-prez about how to handle President Bush and his foreign policy team. /p>

Whatever guidance Clinton has been giving them hasn’t exactly panned out. But the lines of communication remain open. Certainly that’s what Democrats on Capitol Hill are hoping. According to a Senate Democratic staffer, Sen. Tom Daschle and others on the leadership team have discussed whether it might not be worthwhile to have Clinton serve as an intermediary between them and like-minded Bush resenters overseas.

“The assumption is that Chirac and Schroeder and Putin are going to have to deal with Bush on other issues over the next year, and that there will be times to put Bush in a bad light,” says the Democratic staffer. “It’s in everyone’s interest to see Bush taken down a notch, all the better if it’s on an international stage. It helps us and it helps Chirac and his crowd.”

Clinton has not been approached, and it’s not clear that he would be receptive. “It’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard,” said the Clinton staffer.

p> THE BURR IN JOHNNY’S SIDE