Final Word from Friday, February 15, 2008
Mirek Topolánek is sometimes reminiscent of John Yossarian, the smart-aleck bombardier in "Catch-22" whose only mission each time he goes up in the sky is to come down alive. Topolánek seems to have decided to try to live forever as premier, or die in the attempt. He has made one blunder after another in the presidential elections. Any single one of them (his accusation that ČSOB financed Jan Švejnar's campaign, his decision to accept an open ballot, his criticism of Pavel Bém, his alleged threat against Jiří Čunek, etc.) might have been enough to kill him, but if you add them all up, they tend to exonerate him of blame if Václav Klaus is not reelected today. And perhaps Topolánek doesn't even care ultimately which way the vote goes, as long as he survives. To paraphrase Yossarian, there's nothing wrong with running away from your responsibilities if your main responsibility is to save your own ass.[Czech Republic Joseph Heller KDU-ČSL]
Glossary of difficult words
catch-22 - a difficult situation from which there is no escape because of mutually conflicting or dependent conditions; if Klaus wins, he might try to replace Topolánek, and if Klaus loses, it might be reason to replace Topolánek; we suggest that Topolánek is responding by trying first and foremost to save his own skin, regardless of the election outcome;
reminiscent - tending to remind one of something;
smart-aleck - a know-it-all;
bombardier - the member of a combat aircraft crew who operates the bombsight and drops the bombs;
blunder - mistake;
to exonerate - to absolve from blame, find innocent.