Jivin' Me Man

Now that the United States has gone to all the trouble of arranging a time for Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to meet with Ozawa Ichirō, the head of the Democratic Party of Japan, Ozawa says he is too busy to meet with her. It seems he has some very important campaign events in the countryside he absolutely, positively, has to attend.

There are so many things wrong with Ozawa's act it boggles the imagination.

1) If you are going to skip out on a date with a lady, you need to call to make the cancellation yourself. You do not have Hatoyama Yukio call and make excuses for you.

2) If you want to avoid looking like you are avoiding making difficult choices then stop walking away from situations where you are forced to make difficult choices (yes, some of us DO remember your walking out of the revote of the Indian Ocean dispatch legislation two years ago).

3) You have been playing hookey from Diet sessions, traipsing through the hinterlands, for over a year now. By now you have likely visited nearly every district the DPJ has a even a remote chance of winning.

I could go on--but duty calls.

Ichirō, booobie, just tell me you want to be taken seriously.

Please.

Later - OK, so now Ozawa is going to meet Secretary Clinton.

No, I am not going to apologize, Wataru-san.

There never should have ever been a question about his meeting her. That the Democratic Party of Japan ever let there be the slightest doubt about Ozawa's availability exposes a staggering lack of gravitas in the DPJ's central leadership.