THEY ARE BUZZING - AT 1:43 P.M. ET:  ...about the shabby treatment British Prime Minister Gordon Brown received at the hands of President Obama in the last few days during Brown's trip here.  Dana Milbank of The Washington Post reviews the carnage:

Our British cousins are getting the feeling that the new administration doesn't fancy them.

The murmurs began when President Obama returned to the British Embassy the Winston Churchill bust that had been displayed in the Oval Office since Tony Blair lent it to George W. Bush.

The fears intensified when press secretary Robert Gibbs, announcing British Prime Minister Gordon Brown's visit to the White House, demoted the Churchillian phrase "special relationship" to a mere "special partnership" across the Atlantic.

And the alarm bells really went off when Brown's entourage landed at Andrews Air Force Base on Monday night. Obama, breaking with precedent, wouldn't grant the prime minister the customary honor of standing beside him in front of the two nations' flags for the TV cameras. The Camp David sleepover that Blair got on his first meeting with Bush? Sorry, chaps. 

COMMENT:  Smart, real smart of President Obama.  Punish our friends, reward our enemies.  A few days ago a letter leaked in which Obama essentially offered to scrap missile defense for Eastern Europe if Russia would hold our hand on Iran.  Must have made the Czechs and Poles feel all warm and fuzzy. 

You'll notice that foreign countries, including allies, aren't exactly falling over themselves to praise the Obama foreign policy.  I suspect that numbness is more their attitude.  The One isn't the messiah after all

The Telegraph's Ian Martin, who is stationed in Washington, is so angry that he's ready to pull up the drawbridge: 

We get the point, sunshine: we're just one of many allies and you want fancy new friends. Well, the next time you need something doing, something which impinges on your national security, then try calling the French, or the Japanese, or best of all the Germans. The French will be able to offer you first rate support from their catering corps but beyond that you'll be on your own.

When it comes to men, munitions and commitment you'll soon find out why it pays to at least treat the Brits with some manners.

Hear!  Hear!

March 4, 2009.