Final Word from Monday, January 16, 2006
Vladimír Doležal of ODS and Michal Kraus of ČSSD are by no means the first politicians who want to have their cake and eat it too. They're resigning from certain political positions as a way to escape suspicion of corruption, while holding on to other well-paying posts. Of Czech politicians, Stanislav Gross and Miroslav Kalousek tried this last year, to varying degrees of success. The world's best current example is Tom DeLay, the Republican who resigned as U.S. House majority leader but kept his congressional seat. Doležal, and especially Kraus, seem to have studied his case. Czech politicians tired of listening to preaching from the West about local corruption can take comfort in the words of Zbigniew Brzezinski. He famously said that Washington is the most-corrupt capital. One difference between the U.S. and Czech capitals, though, is that the independent justice system in Washington is hot on the tail of DeLay and his friends.[Czech Republic ČSSD KDU-ČSL D.C. United States U.S. USA]