Ripples Across The Pond

Earlier this year, neo-cons had great rejiocing when France elected "conservative" (because, really, he's practically middle-of-the-road-right, from an objective American viewpoint) Nicholas Sarkozy president. I wonder what they'll make of this?:

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's conservative ruling camp was headed for a devastating election defeat on Sunday that could well force the 52-year-old leader to resign, media exit polls showed.

The election for half the seats in parliament's 242-member upper house is the first nationwide electoral test since Abe took over as prime minister 10 months ago, pledging to boost Japan's global security profile, rewrite its pacifist constitution and nurture economic growth.

Public broadcaster NHK said Abe's Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and its partner, the New Komeito, were seen winning between 39 and 55 of the 64 seats needed to keep their majority in the upper house, where half of the 242 seats are up for grabs. The New Komeito had aimed for 13 seats.

Japan, a far more traditionalist and conservative society, put up with Abe's nonsense for less than ten months before deciding they'd like to go back to the more liberal administration of government.

Likely because, as with so many conservative administrations, Abe's administration has been rife with corruption and ineptitude almost from the very start.

But doubts about his leadership abilities were fanned by a series of gaffes and scandals that led two cabinet members to resign and one to commit suicide, as well as revelations that the government had lost track of millions of pension premium payments.

Like Bush, Abe succeeded a wildly popular Prime Minister (Junichiro Koizumi), with Elvis-Presley-like charisma.

There's a lesson here for Democrats, as well. The opposition party, the LDP, pledged to "shrink income gaps and ensure the weak are not neglected." This echoes the 2006 Congressional campaign, to an extent, but should become the focal point for the presidential campaign next year.

A Study In Executive Responsibility

One could only hope a certain twice-selected President would be subject to this:

Abe, who faces his first major electoral test in a July 29 upper house poll, is trying to soothe voter outrage over mismanaged pension records, but the Nikkei said its survey showed he has failed to do so.[...]

Abe will return 2.34 million yen ($18,890) of his summer bonus of 5.36 million yen to take responsibility for the pensions issue, chief cabinet secretary Yasuhisa Shiozaki told a news conference.

"As head of the government, the prime minister has decided to do this to take responsibility for the pension issue," Shiozaki said, adding that he and Health Minister Hakuo Yanagisawa will also return 940,000 yen of their bonuses.

Oh, that we could insist Bush return some of his oil companies' bail out money for the piss poor job he's done keeping gasoline prices down, or that Dick Cheney would be forced to return some of his ill-gotten gains from Halliburton as a result of this hideous train wreck of a war!

Or goodness knows how many other Cabinet and near-Cabinet level officers would be forced to return money earned in the industries they've had what we can laughingly call "oversight" in!

But more important...

Abe's recent low poll numbers have not been seen for a prime minister since the gaffe-prone Yoshiro Mori, who was forced to step down in April 2001.[...]

Abe will not automatically have to resign if his ruling coalition loses its majority in the upper house, and it could control the chamber by wooing independents or members of tiny parties if it falls short of majority by a few seats.

But a major defeat would mean the ruling bloc would be unable to enact legislation, which must be approved by both houses of parliament, threatening political paralysis and prompting calls for Abe to resign or even call a snap lower house election.

If only...

But here's the telling quote that President Bush ought to pay attention to, from his NBFF..."Japanese citizens are feeling very angry about how this has been handled, so I felt that I needed to take responsibility."

Responsibility, a word Bush has little experience with.