Hitting him when he's down

Left, right, left, left...what are your hands doing down by your sides, ya bum?

Courtesy: Mainichi Shimbun
morning edition of September 7, 2007

As DPJ Party Leader Ozawa Ichirō whispers to Nagatsuma Akira, the DPJ's point man on the pensions problem, "This is it: the do or die round," he notices a commotion over in the opposing corner.

Health & Welfare Minister Matsuzoe Yōichi is looking to his manager, Prime Minister Abe Shinzō, for instructions...but Abe has turned his back on his fighter and is instead looking glumly at the gleefully gesticulating pair of Chief Cabinet Secretary Yosano Kaoru and LDP Secretary-General Aso Tarō.

"Hey, look at that," Ozawa marvels, "The guy who is supposed to be giving directions is getting directions!"

Something tells me that the folks at the Mainichi Shimbun have shed all fear of reprisal from from the Abe government and the LDP in response to merciless mockery of the Prime Minister's post-August 27 status.