George Bush: International man of (unintended) consequences

President Bush effectively ceded his potential role as kingmaker within the Republican Party -- first by picking Dick Cheney as his running mate eight years ago (even before Cheney became an intensely polarizing figure, he made clear he had no top-spot aspirations), and then by playing no overt role in the GOP's '08 nomination race.

But, as the Washington Post's Dana Milbank posits today, Bush could well be remembered for unintentionally proving a key figure in determining the course of internal politics in several other nations.

Milbank offers up a typically caustic column on Bush's tete-a-tete Monday with new Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, who gained his office after his voters late last year soundly rejected his pro-Bush predecessor, John Howard.

Opined Milbank:

"Bush may be a loathed figure in much of the world, but one group owes him a debt of gratitude: the many opposition leaders who came to power after Bush-friendly ruling parties were voted out. Howard took his place alongside Jose Maria Aznar of Spain (whose party was dumped in 2004), Italy's Silvio Berlusconi (tossed out in 2006), and Britain's Tony Blair (stepped aside in favor of a Bush-skeptical understudy in 2007). Ruling parties in Poland and Japan also paid for their leaders' friendships with Bush with big defeats."

The entire column, headlined "The Coalition of the Unwilling," can be read here.

-- Don Frederick