It is a cliché but also a truism that nothing lasts for ever as George W. Bush and his British counterpart Tony Blair are no doubt digesting. Just a few short months ago, they were both riding a high. Their respective re-elections to office despite critiques and leaks over pre-Iraq war intelligence were nothing short of miraculous. It was as though they could do no wrong. Not so today.

Bush’s fall from grace was clearly evident during last week’s Summit of the Americas, held at the Argentine coastal resort of Mar del Plata where he received a distinctly cool reception. He arrived with a jaunt in his step confident of rallying support for a free trade area that would take in the entire American continent. He left with nothing except for the taunts of the Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez, who said he had brought with him a shovel to bury the agreement, and the sounds of glass-breaking anti-imperialist rioters ringing in his ears.

The American president badly needed agreement on the FTAA to show his public that he still held clout in the international arena now that his approval rating hovers around a mere 37 percent, the lowest since the discredited former US President Richard Nixon.

A self-billed “war president”, his political unraveling began when military deaths in Iraq topped the 2000 mark and was exacerbated over his initial inaction when faced with the Katrina catastrophe. His invincibility bubble burst when voters who had previously believed that he more than anyone else was qualified to protect them from terrorist attacks were rudely awakened.

The withdrawal of Bush’s crony nomination for the Supreme Court Harriet Miers, who was unmercifully ridiculed, and the arrest of top White House aide Lewis “Scooter” Libby for his role in “Plamegate” have reflected badly on the administration’s trust factor.

And contributing to his woes is the ongoing investigation of his personal mentor Karl Rove, the arrest of his close friend top Republican Tom DeLay for money-laundering and campaign finance irregularities, as well as accusations that Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist has been involved in insider trading.

Just imagine! The man who came to office riding a whiter than white ticket and vowing to run a squeaky clean administration has now ordered his staff to undergo a refresher course in ethics of all things.

It is little wonder, therefore, that some of his buddies and former colleagues are running for hills in an attempt to put as much distance as possible between themselves and Pennsylvania Avenue.

Prominent among these is Colin Powell’s former Chief of Staff Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, who has recently blamed a right-wing cabal headed by Vice President Dick Cheney for cooking up the invasion of Iraq.

Of like mind is Brent Scowcroft, a former US national security advisor and long-standing confidante to Dick Cheney. While highlighting GOP divisions over Iraq, he said: “The real anomaly in the administration is Cheney. I consider Cheney a friend — I’ve known him for 30 years. But Dick Cheney I don’t know any more.”

It isn’t surprising. The new and far from improved version Cheney has been appealing to Republican senators to allow the CIA an exemption from the proposed ban on torture and is being thwarted by the formerly loyal Sen. John McCain, who was tortured during the Vietnam War.

Wilkerson believes that Cheney is chief architect of the abuse meted out to detainees in Afghanistan, Iraq, Guantanamo and other facilities housed in secret locations worldwide, including Eastern Europe.

Across the Pond, Blair fares little better. In recent weeks, he has faced the loss of one of his key Cabinet members, David Blunkett. The latter was forced to resign due to procedural improprieties over holdings of stocks and his failure to take advice from a Commons advisory committee over a series of directorships he accepted while briefly out of office.

Unfortunately, Blunkett’s resignation reflects badly on Blair’s personal judgment. Blunkett had been sacked earlier from his post as home secretary for a series of misdemeanors and scandals concerning his extra-marital affair with a married society editor, which resulted in a battle over paternity. Leaving Blunkett very little time to twiddle his thumbs, Blair brought him back within a matter of months and placed him in charge of works and pensions.

Leader of the Conservatives Michael Howard gleefully took the opportunity of portraying the prime minister a lame duck “in office but not in power” during Wednesday’s Prime Minister’s Question Time in the Commons.

Blair has further faced a revolt within his own Cabinet over plans to ban smoking in all public places and has now been forced to back down over a new anti-terrorism bill that would have seen terrorist suspects interned for up to three months without charge.

Once again, on this issue Blair has fallen foul of Cabinet divisions and a growing number of hostile backbenchers within his own party, who objected to other aspects of the bill including “glorification of terror” due to free speech concerns.

Moreover, the bill has been savaged by the country’s top legal minds, including the recently retired Chief Justice Lord Woolf and, according to leaks, Blair’s own Attorney-General Lord Goldsmith.

With a decreasing number of parliamentary allies, there are rumors that Blair may be forced to stand down as prime minister leaving the way clear for his Chancellor Gordon Brown — a socialist purist — to step in.

What then for the US-UK détente and its undisguised plans to forcibly “democratize” the Middle East? Your guess is as good as mine but if I had my way, they would go the way of their arrogant proponents...hopefully into oblivion.