For Envoy, A Cheerio Of Respect And Cheer

LONDON -- It has not been easy to be a "Friend of W" in London in recent years, let alone the official representative of one of the most unpopular U.S. leaders in Britain since George Washington battled the redcoats.

"You don't get to choose the times when you get these jobs," U.S. Ambassador Robert H. Tuttle said with a laugh. Tuttle, a Bush appointee and friend, steps down this week to make way for an as-yet-unnamed successor to be chosen by President Obama.

The U.S. ambassador's job is the most high-profile diplomatic post in London. Washington's envoy lives in Winfield House, a massive, historic home with the second-largest private garden in the city -- after Buckingham Palace.

The British media have been buzzing with rumors about who might succeed Tuttle. Based apparently on little more than hope for some celebrity fizz in the job, the media have floated the names of Oprah Winfrey and Caroline Kennedy, whose grandfather once held the post.

In his 3 1/2 years in London, Tuttle is widely perceived to have won friends for himself and the United States despite widespread British anger at Bush over Iraq, Guantanamo Bay, climate change and other issues.

"I think he got the United States back on the front foot here," said Charles Powell, a top aide to former prime minister Margaret Thatcher. Using a cricket metaphor, Powell said Tuttle "was batting on a pretty difficult wicket, but he did it quite elegantly, despite a fairly hostile climate."

William Shawcross, a British broadcaster and author, said Tuttle and his wife, Maria, a former high-powered Los Angeles lawyer, have been "the best ambassadors in my lifetime."

"They've presented America and America's positions and dilemmas in difficult times in a very clever and sympathetic way," Shawcross said.

Tuttle, 65, a wealthy businessman and modern-art collector from Southern California, arrived in London in July 2005. U.S.-British relations were particularly tense because the job had been vacant for a year at a time of growing criticism of the U.S. and British occupation of Iraq.

Relations between the two allies had also been strained by Tuttle's predecessor, wealthy horse-breeder William S. Farish, who took the job two months before the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. Farish was best known for his friendship with Queen Elizabeth II and for being, as former British ambassador to the United States Christopher Meyer wrote, "as agreeable as he was invisible."

Many in Britain were initially skeptical of Tuttle, who made a fortune in his family's auto dealership business. Tuttle served for six years in the Reagan White House, and his father was one of President Reagan's closest confidants.

Critics complained that Bush had appointed a "California car salesman" and major campaign contributor who had little obvious foreign policy experience at a time of extremely high stakes for the United States and Britain.