One such issue was preparing for "life after Bush", ie that wonderful day next January when George clears off to be replaced by Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, John McCain... or maybe some other Republican (not Mitt Romney).
Now, as Grice patiently explained, Brown can't come out and actually say this (although it seems pretty likely that someone not unadjacent to Number 10 had been whispering in Grice's ear).
But it seemed a clear pitch to those legions of Labour voters who are losing faith in Brown that, if they hang on, it'll be all right on the night.
Well, all fine and good. Of course Brown can't turn up on Andrew Marr's show and say, "I can't wait for the day when Bush buggers off".
But if this is "liberal" Brown putting down his marker, why on earth is he about to embark on a bruising battle in Parliament seeking to extend detention to 42 days?
It emerged today that some small print in the counter-terrorism bill, published in January, seeks to allow the home secretary powers to replace appointed coroners in certain inquests with their own appointees (i.e. patsys) on "national security" grounds.
Why? And why hide it in the small print?
Because Brown always does, of course, is the simple answer but it's such a stupid thing to do. The centre left press (which is the only support he's likely to get come 2009) will be outraged -- and quite rightly.
At the same time he finds himself in the middle of a row as the rozzers have apparently bugged one of his own MPs (now a government whip, God help us) visiting a terrorist suspect (suspected by the Americans, not us) in prison.
Why this unfortunate man is in prison at all is an issue all on its own, but the government seems to like locking people up.
Shadow home secretary David Davis says he wrote to Brown weeks ago advising him of this malpractice (the bugging, that is).
Number 10 says it never got the letter. Lost in the post somewhere, one assumes.
You can imagine the scene: "This is for Gordon from David Davis, something about bugging."
"Oh chuck it away, he can't be bothered with that."
Is this the fabled "smoking gun", the fib that brings down politicians?
Almost certainly not, but at the least it shows a government that is constitutionally unable to give a straight answer to a straight question.
And the media will be all over it like a rash this week.
And all the brownie points the PM gained in letting it be known that he thinks George Bush is just as big a menace as the rest of us do, will be lost.
Politics of the media is a regular series of opinion pieces for Brand Republic about the way media shapes politics and vice-versa. Stephen Foster is a partner at The Editorial Partnership and can be contacted at:steve-edco@blueyonder.co.uk.