Welcome ... Paul Martin, new Prime Minister of Canada. One issue he has to face is relations with friends to the south, including in response to the new policy of barring opponents of the war with Iraq from reconstruction contracts. Though the President appeared to remove Canada from said list (France/Germany/Russia are the usual scapegoats here) in a recent discussion with Martin's predecessor, they technically would be included. Their slew of comedians, a major export of that country, can have a field day with such stuff. A recent statement critical of the policy:

"But instead of being smart, clever, or magnanimous, the Bush Administration has done a dumb thing. The announcement of a policy of discriminating against French, German, and Russian firms has made credible European charges of vindictive pettiness and general disregard for the opinion of even fellow liberal democracies. More important, it has made former Secretary of State James Baker's very important effort to get these countries, among others, to offer debt relief for the new government of Iraq almost impossible. This is to say nothing of other areas where we need to work with these governments."

-- Weekly Standard editorial

One need not look to the Democrats or anti-war partisans to find the administration being called the opposite of "truly wise," "clever," and "deviously smart," or criticism of the "diplomatic damage done by the Pentagon's heavy-handed and counterproductive action. " On the other hand, for good or ill, this administration is not quite as ideal for conservative true believers as some might think.

[The magazine also has an interesting article "sort of" defending trial lawyers. This is not as strange as it sounds -- libertarians are big believers of deregulation, replacing government regulation with tort liability. Within the proper bounds, therefore, clearly lawyers have their place in their ideological universe.]