Bush's Spanish PM Aznar Pays The Ultimate Political Price For His Support Of Bush

by Steve

The first member of Bush’s proud pro-war triad bit the dust unexpectedly today when Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar’s party was upset in nationwide elections by the Socialist Party. Analysts ascribe the unexpected loss by Aznar’s party to his support for George W. Bush. According to analysts, voters apparently blamed the recent railroad bombings by Al Qaeda on Aznar’s support for the war and Bush, and Spain’s deployment of 1300 troops in Iraq.

While opinion polls taken before the attacks had given Aznar's Popular Party a comfortable lead, voters overwhelmingly endorsed candidates from the opposition Socialist Party, whose leader, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, has promised to immediately withdraw Spain's 1,300 troops from Iraq, redirect Spain's foreign policy away from the United States and restore good relations with such European allies as France and Germany that had opposed the Iraq war.

(V)oters turned against the Popular Party after a series of coordinated bomb blasts ripped through four crowded commuter trains at rush hour Thursday morning, and government officials blamed the Basque separatist group ETA while dismissing the possibility that the attacks might have been carried out by Islamic extremists linked to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda terror network. As mounting evidence pointed to al Qaeda, many Spaniards criticized the government for withholding that information to avoid a public backlash against the decision to deploy troops to Iraq.

The Popular Party's loss deprives the Bush administration of one of its most solid allies in Europe. Aznar has been a frequent visitor to the White House and to the president's ranch in Crawford, Tex.

All right Mr. Blair, how ya’ feeling now?