People’s Life First, Capeesh? Okay, Go Do Your Thang Now

Sticking with the notion of crime and punishment, did you notice that Ozawa’s fourth baby, christened the People’s Life First (our survival second?) Party by the venerable German scholar Dr. Axel Klein, is explicitly allowing its Diet members to vote their conscience? Specifically, there will be no binding party-line votes. That’s not all; four DPJ parliamentarians in the House of Councillors (HOCs), all first-term members whose six-year terms expire in 2013, are in the process of defecting from the DPJ and caucusing with a HOC defector from the very junior coalition partner PNP. And they too, will forego binding party-line votes.

Very well, they represent their constituents; not their party leaders. The Americans do it; why can’t they? I get it. One big catch, though. Let’s say that Ozawa isn’t doing the last-ditch, Saigo Takamori/Last Samurai thing and is actually serious about forming a coalition. What’s he going to say to prospective coalition partners, “Oh, and by the way, if my guys vote against what we just agreed on, tough sh!t, okay?”

Who is he kidding?