Credit Where Credit Is Due When Credit is in Short Supply

Though I look at the political classes with a jaundiced eye most of the time, I have to admit feeling a certain satisfaction at the sight of the members of both the Liberal Democratic Party and the Democratic Party of Japan halting their usual political gamesmanship in recognition of the need for a positive, cooperative response to a crisis.

An accelerated passage of the supplementary budget bill and an abbreviated House of Representatives discussion of the bill renewing the Indian Ocean dispatch may not be much in the grand scheme of things. The spirit of comity also may not last. However, the members of the Diet and the leaders of the major parties do deserve a small round of applause.