IT'S PAYBACK TIME IN WASHINGTON. Britain's prime minister, Tony Blair, is coming to town to discuss the state of the world with President Bush: His steadfast support of Bush and America in Iraq entitles him to more than a friendly photo-op. Blair paid a heavy price at the polls for that support, and now has a parliamentary majority so reduced that some are calling for him to step down in favor of his chancellor, Gordon Brown. Which Blair will do sometime in the next four years, but, if he has his way, not before he realizes his ambition of creating "the enduring 21st-century welfare state."

But it is not only to reward Blair for facing down the Franco-German axis on Iraq that Bush has to offer tangible recognition. The president has to demonstrate to other nations that alliance with America begets a gratitude that goes beyond thank-you visits and speeches. After all, it is widely known that Poland and other countries that defied the dominant European powers to side with us are very unhappy--no contracts for Iraq's reconstruction, no trade advantages, nothing that the leaders of these countries can parade before their voters, most of whom opposed sending troops to Iraq.

It is safe to assume that the two men will spend little time sympathizing with the plight of Jacques Chirac, who is reeling from France's massive vote against the E.U. constitution. Or shed a tear for Gerhard Schröder, who seems to be headed for rejection by Germany's voters this fall. Blair's views of Chirac cannot be printed in a family magazine, and Schröder's anti-American, anti-Bush campaign still rankles in the White House.

Indeed, Bush and Blair might permit themselves a bit of a gloat, both having been reelected, along with Australia's John Howard, while voters are preparing to retire the leaders of the Franco-German antiwar, pro-Saddam axis.

Chortling done, the serious business of the meeting starts. Blair personally makes no claim to payback: He did what he thought was right when he leapt to America's side, still says he was right, and is willing to pay the domestic political price for his beliefs. Instead of asking for a quid pro quo, the prime minister wants to persuade the president that this is a historic moment--that we are witnessing the collapse of what Don Rumsfeld aptly called "Old Europe." In Blair's view the United States now has an opportunity to turn "New Europe," and sensible residents of France, Germany, and other countries, in what the prime minister's aides call "the right direction." They agree that America has done a great deal in recent months to restore the transatlantic relationship; that Europe now recognizes that its crisis is about Europe, not about the United States; and that the president's recent statements that America welcomes Europe's leadership role in dealing with Iran's nuclear ambitions has gone down well. Now is the time, they think, for Bush to capitalize on those developments to convert Europe into an outward looking, pro-American ally, rather than a "sulking alternative pole of attraction."