Democratic politics and sausage-making have a long history of cliche-punditry. This is particularly true of satirical commentary on brand new democracies test-driving a form of politics transplanted from the sausage-selling entity that morphed it precipitously from a right-wing dictatorship into an unsteady, would-be runaway republic. Not to mention doing so in the very close shadow of its natural progenitor struggling with its own 21st Century identity.
But then a political scandal is a political scandal no matter the meat locker it's pulled from, which in this case is not the least bit surprising, since Taiwan's Mr. Chen Shui-bian has been tainted beef from his bovine growth-hormone engineered beginning.
But my overly precious take on this Taiwan matter is far better captured by the reporting of Jim Yardley of The New York Times, which I excerpt and link to below, somewhat belatedly, since it is a few days old, but I have been a bit busy of late:
Corruption Scandal at Top Tests Taiwan's Democracy
TAIPEI, Taiwan, Nov. 18 -- At times, Taiwanese politics is a blend of opera and blood sport, and this is one of those times. Scandal and outrage, lying and humiliation -- all of it messy and delivered in a loud, public fashion -- are consuming political life here, as a virtual death watch has settled over the second term of President Chen Shui-bian.
Mr. Chen, who once aspired to be Taiwan's George Washington, is now accused of being its Boss Tweed. Prosecutors have implicated him in a fake receipts scandal and are planning to put his wife on trial next month. The rival Nationalist Party, salivating over Mr. Chen's troubles, is facing its own scandal, as prosecutors say they are investigating the party's presumptive 2008 presidential candidate for his own fake receipts.
Taiwan's partisan newspapers have been filled with so many suggestive details -- a reportedly ill-gotten Tiffany diamond ring, to name one -- that the noise and acrimony have obscured the more elemental issue that the island's young democracy is being severely tested.
