Final Word from Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Soon after the votes were counted on Sat., an already tipsy Miroslav Kalousek told Czech TV that he certainly wouldn't rate TOP 09's performance in the Senate elections a failure. Well, in fact TOP 09 won only two of the 27 seats, for 7.4% of those at stake. This falls to half that level is you consider that newly elected TOP Sen. Jaromír Štětina is actually a Green. In crude percentage terms, TOP is on a downward election trajectory that will be difficult to reverse. Kalousek is increasingly using strong-arm tactics to hang on to power and money (auditing Defense Minister Vondra, trying to take back carbon credits, insisting on the eco-tender, steamrolling Parliament to pass reform bills already baked into his budget). If Transport Minister Vít Bárta has a Putin complex, Kalousek is increasingly looking like Boris Yeltsin. Whose popularity plummeted as he became dictatorial and drank himself to death.[Czech Republic Vladimir Russia Alexandr VV emissions allowances]
Glossary of difficult words
tipsy - light-headed, half-drunk;
crude - in a natural or raw state; (we acknowledge that the percentage of Senate seats won is a rather crude measurement);
strong-arm - aggressive; coercive; characterized by force or violence;
to steamroll/steamroller - to forcibly pass a measure by restricting debate or otherwise overriding opposition;
to plummet - to fall or drop straight down at high speed.