Friday, June 26, 2009

Taro Aso Speaks Out on the Merits of Heirloom Turkeys

I try not to shoot fish in a barrel; it’s too cruel. On the other hand, I’m too busy/bored to…oh, what the hell…

One-third of LDP Diet members have inherited their seats from close relatives (mostly dads). This proportion is sure to rise after the upcoming Lower House election, as vulnerable first-term Koizumi Kids bear the brunt of the voters’ ire. The “merely” one–fifth heirloom DPJ has promised to bar heirloom turkeys from swooping in after the upcoming election, and the more fearful LDP folks are making similar noises. So leave it to our Prime Minister to weigh in on behalf of his fellow Tokyo courtiers holding sway over their distant fiefdoms:
”A frog’s offspring are frogs, as they say. It is important to grow up looking at your parents’ backside. One becomes a farmer, a carpenter, a plasterer, following in one’s father’s footsteps. That should be properly evaluated.”
Let’s see:
Exhibit A: Shinzo Abe
Exhibit B: Yasuo Fukuda
Exhibit C: Taro Aso
I rest my case.

Sorry, MTC, for stealing what’s obviously your kind of material. In the meantime, let’s all watch our own backsides in the upcoming election, so we don’t…but let’s not go there.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Exhibit D: Jun'ichiro Koizumi?

Jun Okumura said...

William: First of all, I have nothing against heirloom turkeys. In fact, I hear they’re much better than the bland, cartoonish butterballs that grace the shelves of American supermarkets today. Second, I have nothing against heirloom turk< strike >ey< /strike >s either; a democracy elects the leaders it deserves. If Kanagawa Prefecture District 11 wants a 28-year-old whose work experience is somewhere south of that of Taizo Sugimura, who am I to complain?

Seriously, Koizumi lasted five years and went out in a blaze of electoral glory and has managed to destroy the LDP as we know it—leaving it to Mr. Aso to deliver the coup de grace. To be sure, I was never able to understand his charm, but I have to admit that he’s been successful at what he set out to do. And that’s more than I can say for myself.