The 2-Belo wrote:
> We have a report from the fj.life.in-japan Dynamics Officer that CL has
> exploded. Flight director confirms that:
> 
>> The 2-Belo wrote:
>>> In which I follow Seiko Noda around all day on her last campaign swing through
>>> Gifu, attending two downtown rallies:
>>>
>>> http://the2belo.livejournal.com/497290.html
>> Nice photies. 
> 
> Thanks! I had a great time freaking everyone out ("who the hell *is* this white
> dude and why is the Ministeress of State shaking his hand? Three times? WTF?").

And, if someone actually asks, you waggle your eyebrows and say 
"Sometimes she visits my house in the evening."

>> Shame about the outcome, in a way, but she had the chance
>> to cross over to the Bright Side and didn't. Now she's a Proportional.
> 
> She still has a solid conservative base of support in this town, so I don't see
> her changing her affiliations at all. Besides, this wasn't an anti-Noda result,
> it's an anti-LDP result. *Everyone* got 0wn3d.

I think it was a LOT MORE than that.  Seiko didn't get spanked in 2005, 
but she did this time.  There is a message there that isn't getting heard.

>> She's also about one of three senior LDP lawmakers with anything
>> resembling a good reputation that are left. 
> 
> And she's not an octogenerian prune-face, which means she still has plenty of
> time to get back on the horse.
> 
>> I figure they ought to run her for party president.  She'd give ol' Mizuho 
>> a good run for her money.
> 
> I'm sure there are still members of the Old Guard who think "we'll let a woman
> run this party when the gavel is pried from our cold dead hands", but that too
> will eventually change. Back before she torpedoed her standing in the party by
> opposing the post office privatization bill, she was on the fast track to the
> top, so I suppose there's still a chance of that if she can keep her head down
> and not contribute to the LDP Gaffe Machine. She's been doing pretty good so
> far.

Take a close look at the voting results and you'll see that no one 
associated with the entire Post Office debacle is still around.  Koizumi 
is gone, along with -- I think all -- of those execrable Koizumi 
children.  Sato Yukari, the "hit bitch" they sent to knock Seiko off in 
2005, and failed, was dumped by the voters in her new district, too. 
Second, due to some serious pushing from younger Party members, a lot of 
the old dead wood didn't run for reelection and most of the ones who did 
were part of the acceptable attrition count.  The one's that slithered 
through, like Nukaga and Yosano were "reelected" on the proportional ticket.

So, you've got Seiko-chan, Masazoe, maybe Ishihara's older kid (the one 
that isn't the failed actor or the failed bank clerk).  Just about no 
one else is well known for any _good_ reason nor credible.  Most of the 
old guys who are left got reelected in single-seat districts because 
they do graft and bribery better than the opposition so the locals sent 
them back.  I don't know if that guy who did all of the verbal blow jobs 
for Koizumi during his PM years made the final cut last night or not.  I 
am hoping he didn't.  If he did, I am sure he'll try to run for Party 
President.

I'm pretty sure that your fears of a long rehabilitation are exaggerated.

-- 
CL