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:
>>> 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."
> 
> And the thing is, she *has*. Twice. (NO, NOT THAT WAY. It was a community
> meeting house visit, and it was mom-in-law's idea, not mine, and there were too
> many old ladies present (as well as young ones such as my wife) so I couldn't
> Put the Moves on a member of Parliament 10 years my senior even if I wanted to.
> So I just smiled a lot and took eleventy billion pictures.)

Guess you're not conversant with Groucho Marx ... or Richard Pryor. 
Yeah, that _is_ true.  You've told us all before.  You don't have to 
explain it all to Taro and Sachi, though.  Let 'em stew.  Rumors can be 
fun to start and watch.  It is part of the fun you don't get to have 
otherwise.

>>>> 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.
> 
> Maybe it takes getting spanked once to wake a good politician up. Such setbacks
> have been known to streamline people...

Maybe.  Hard to say from here and with little study whether that spank 
is for the Party, for her, or for her believing and following the Party. 
   But, someone should figure it out for her soon as some people are 
saying there will be another election within 18 months.

>>>> 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. 
> 
> Man, don't remind me. That entire episode just smacked too damned much of
> backroom yakuza whateverism for comfort. I was glad to see Sato was sent
> packing, both times.

Koizumi played dirty.  Now it is all coming back to haunt the Party.  A 
lot of what he set in motion is stuff that doesn't work, never did work, 
and should never have been passed.  Sato sold her soul (well, what 
little she possessed of one ... she was ex-Merrill-Lynch, after all) for 
the chance to be a big hero and she eventually paid the ultimate price.

> And speaking of hits, note that last year Seiko's office here in Gifu was hit by
> an arsonist, destroying everything, after Sato left this district. I'm not
> saying there's a connection here. I'm just sayin'.

You're not the only one.  Supposedly the cops say it was an electrical 
fault.  I know at least a dozen ways to make one of those while wearing 
gloves and not leaving fingerprints.I'm sure I am not the only person in 
Japan to have this information.

>> 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.
> 
> The term actually used is "resurrected". Some of those guys look like they came
> back from the grave, too.

Sometimes I am surprised that more of them don't open a coffin lid and 
step out from their campaign van on to the speakers platform.  I have 
seen a few that had to be helped up and wondered how they could campaign.

>> 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.  
> 
> Mori the Beady-Eyed Bear, for one. He was one *crappy* PM but he still manages
> to hang around. I don't get it.

Mori is sort of cool once you get the hang of his "thought processes" 
(sic).  The guy is dumb like a fox and you don't dare turn your back on 
him.  His politics are sort of at the stone axe / hardwired hind brain 
level, though.

>> 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.
> 
> However, I'm glad she wasn't being seriously considered for the PM job back when
> they were vetting Aso, like some local rumors had indicated. I knew
> instinctively that whoever took the reins at that time would have simply been
> chum for the sharks -- note Aso's approval ratings -- so it's a good thing
> *that* didn't happen.

Another one I watch is Tanigaki who was Finance Minister under Koizumi. 
  The guy is extremely bright but has a tendency to tell the truth, 
which is the kind of thing that gets politicians in more trouble than 
lying and getting caught.  When he ran for party president against Abe, 
he came directly out and said "Hey, Japan is about six days away from 
going broke and we're either going to have to raise taxes or deflate the 
yen if we're going to pull through."  People were all over each other 
fighting for the right to be the first one to run away.  Thing is, the 
guy was 110% right.  Everyone wanted to vote for the clown that could 
make wiener dogs out of colored balloons, instead.