PR for Prat
The U-turn specialist has executed another spectacular three-point-turn in the middle of our busy political highway. Last seen preening himself at a press conference with My Mate Martin Schulz at his side, his face aglow with self-satisfied delight, Herr Doktor Joseph Muscat has announced his ‘cancellation’ of the endorsement.
Yes, that’s right. He’s cancelled it. Hands over ears, eyes tight shut, na-na-na-na-na; I’m not hearing you and it doesn’t exist anymore, so there. Herr Doktor was traumatised by the reaction when he brought over his nice little German playmate to tell the cameras: “I tried this product and I liked it. You should try it, too.” Andie McDowell does it for L’Oreal’s Deep Set Wrinkles cream. Martin Schulz does it for Herr Doktor Joseph Muscat. The only difference, Herr Doktor’s fans would have us believe, is that Andie McDowell is prettier than Martin Schulz and Joseph Muscat is not a face-cream.
Ah, but there’s more. Herr Doktor had a whole series of MEPs lined up to fly to Malta to sit by his side in front of the cameras and say: “Joseph Muscat worked for my wrinkles. Try him on yours.” And he’s cancelled them, too. Either he’s of the reaction, or he’s just realized that he came across as a prat and not as an admired and respected politician, which is what he was hoping for. He says that he doesn’t want any more acrimony. Well, I have news for him. If he plans to be party leader and prime minister, he’s got years of acrimony ahead of him, and if he can’t cope with this little bit of nuisance, he’s going to crumble within months like his hero did.
The other day around the supper-table at home we had a bit of an argument. Three were of the opinion that Herr Doktor knows exactly what he is doing, and is aware of the diplomatic implications of having a foreign politician campaign for you in your own country – but he doesn’t care because he has made a strategic decision to focus only on impressing the delegates. The delegates will be impressed by all these Big Europeans Who Like Joseph, and if the public hates it, then he has another five years to win the public round. The other two of us disagreed. We thought Herr Doktor really and truly didn’t know what he was doing, and that he is so politically clueless that he actually thought there would be no backlash and no implications on a wider scale. To him, it was the political equivalent of a wrinkle-cream endorsement by an actor. What’s the fuss? Is anyone screaming in the newspapers about Andie McDowell?
Today’s news that he had a whole line-up of MEPs ready to endorse him, drip by drip, for the remainder of the campaign gives weight to that last argument. The kid really doesn’t have a clue. And I use the word ‘kid’ advisedly, because I know lots of men and women of 34 who are 10 times more mature and astute than he is. Brussels or no Brussels, PhD or no PhD, he is astonishingly unworldly and lacking in sophistication.
A newspaper journalist who got wind of the line-up called Herr Doktor and asked to know who his mates the MEPs were. Herr Doktor wouldn’t say, though he did confirm that he had called off his plans to haul them over. I would have loved, loved, loved to get an answer to the question of who was going to pay for all these business class flights to Malta, and for their hotels. Were they going to come here at Herr Doktor’s expense? At their own expense? Or off the back of an unsuspecting EU public?
It wasn’t the opinion of the general public that put Herr Doktor off his plans. It was the angry reaction of his rival contenders. If he was any way sharper than my butter-knife, he could have foreseen that reaction. It doesn’t take the brain of Stephen Hawking to do it; it just takes commonsense. But as we have seen over the last 30-odd years, the Labour Party and many of those appended to it have become progressively, and strangely, detached from reality. They just seem unable to read common codes of behaviour. They have no idea what the words ‘emotional intelligence’ mean. And God help any man among them who demonstrates such alien traits, like George Abela, for his name is Mincemeat.
And like his mentor, Herr Doktor continues to insist that he is right, while at the same time cancelling his plans. Endorsements like this are common practice in democratic countries, he said. Democratic countries, eh? As opposed to what, China? Yes, he’s right. They are common practice. But the endorser and the endorsed always have one thing in common: citizenship of the same state. You will never get a German politician endorsing a contender for the leadership of the British Labour Party, or a Russian parliamentarian endorsing a potential Italian prime minister. Herr Doktor’s little elves are rushing forward to defend him by saying that Barack Obama was endorsed. Yes, by fellow Americans who have a direct interest in how their country is run, and not by Germans. Not that I have anything against Germans, but Malta – like Britain, France and Italy – has a great deal of historical baggage in this regard. Witness Silvio Berlusconi’s admittedly offensive comment in, what a coincidence, My Mate Martin’s regard.
I love Joseph Muscat. That’s right. He’s turning out to be as good a subject as the man on the other end of the lead. If he’s elected, I’m in clover. I foresee a full five years of pratfalls.
This article is published today in The Malta Independent.
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and the teleserial continues…Rasmussen is informed that “Mr Schulz was defending Mr Muscat from attacks in the right wing press” (see todays Times)
aha so Herr Schulz came to defend Joseph from your “attacks” Daphne. Pity he did not come armed with tear gas canisters from eigthies Labour (courtesy of Dr Angelo Farrugia).
Mr Rasmussen you are so misinformed because Herr Schulz came over to ENDORSE Joseph on BEHALF of the European Socialists.
Perhaps Mr Rasmussen can also substantiate Herr Schulz allegation of Berlusconi’s mafia links. Or perhaps better still he should publicly tell Herr Schulz to belt up.
For me, JM as an MLP leader will mean only one thing: more of the same Alfred Sant antics.
Kif jghid il-Malti – l-ewwel jobzoqha imbaghad jilaghqa.
We will have loads of bad decisions taken on the spur of the moment without any thought of the consequences, and then, U-TURN!!
MLP delegates, wake up.
Shall I compare thee to Alfred Sant?
Though art more ginger and more cuddly:
Rough Mike did shake when you dared fly in Schultz,
But the summer campaign’s too short for a wobbly;
Sometimes too hot do our hopeful eyes shine,
When your gold complexion graces our screens;
You promise to win and bring Divorce Divine,
To change nature’s course and do more than the greens.
But don’t let thy eternal promises fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair hair your predecessor wish’st for,
Nor let George blossom and leave you in his shade,
When you go to Brussels while his tree of delegates grow’st.
As long as you can smile and show your carrot-top for all to see,
Say so long to Sant, and save us from Goooonzi.
(from http://sheepofwrath.wordpress.com)
Lol.lol.As expected a PRAT calling others names.thanks though that I got richer with this article.I was right and I won a good bet. Thanks again. Tomorrow week would be fun indeed!
May I ask Daphne if her last visit to ETNA enlightened her to write this poor article?
I am waiting for Daphne to spend some time and write what she thinks of ‘hedging agreements’.Not coming Sunday please!I am sure I win my Sunday’s bet too.
Furthermore, Herr Doktor Muskat is lying. In the Times he was quoted as saying that he had cancelled further endorsements. On Net TV’s ‘bil-fatti’ with Pierre Portelli on Tuesday he denied he had cancelled any endorsements. The ‘bil-fatti…’ clip was shown on Net News yesterday and it’s reported by In-Nazzjon on page 3 today.
Oh dear me, there you go again hitting at the PhD thing. And is not ‘Herr Doctor’, ‘Poodle’ and other buzz names sounding a bit like ‘Gooonzi’? This approach has been marked a failure by the MLP election defeat commission.
Dear Daphne, Your irrational hatred of Joseph Muscat only serves to discredit yourself as journalist and opinionist. Though a nationalist voter myself, from what I ve seen Joseph has alot of good qualities that would make him a great leader.
[Moderator – The elves are out in force, and they’re claiming to be Nationalist voters who like poodles. Tell tale signs of an elf: use of the invented word ‘opinionist’; sentences constructed around the pattern ‘I am a Nationalist voter, but…’ (just like ‘I am not a racist, but…’); use of the phrase ‘great leader’, normally only reserved for Alfred Sant and Chairman Mao; use of the phrase ‘irrational hatred’ (as opposed to what – rational hatred?)]
@Paul Jackson
Being a nationalist voter……
Why don’t you give us some good points the PN and Dr. Gonzi have…and while you’re at it, give us your main reasons for voting PN and why you didn’t vote MLP.
Just because I vote nationalist deosn t mean I ll accept your point of view on what I should or should not believe.
You yourself do not accept the party line so to speak on certain issues mainly pertaining to the church. In fact if I recall correctly your thoughts on divorce share a similar line with joseph.
Paul s got a point, why the hatred against Joseph? Apart from george abela, he s easily the best candidate of the five contesting.
[Moderator – This comment was posted from the same address as that of ‘Paul Jackson’ – so we’ve either got two elves working as part of a grotto or a solitary elf who has received a directive to post comments under multiple identities.]
Hey Mod,
Your are probably right about the elvishness of Paul Jackson. however – I am a nationalist voter, and I too think that Joseph Muscat could turn out to be a great leader.
Is there something wrong with me?
There’s hatred. And then there’s mockery. Elves please take note.
When will the Elves realise the difference between “irrational hatred/personal attacks” and criticism towards a person’s behaviour and words? Never I guess!!!
DCG hardly needs my defence but in my view (and that of many others) both Alfred Sant and Joseph Muscat deserve all the ridicule they get simply because they are so full of themselves.
Why is George Abela not criticised in the same way? (I hear the elves asking). For one simply reason, because he talks and acts like a person who has his head screwed on in the right place, with the right balance between humility and self-confidence. That is one of the reasons why he would make a good leader and one that does not scare half the population with the mere thought that he will one day be PM.
In one of your previous blogs, I don’t know which one, you called Martin Schulz a “bloody German”. I kind of got the impression that you were dying to called him a “bloody Nazi”. That would have been similar to what Berlusconi called Schulz, if somewhat jokingly and in a roundabout way.
I don’t like Joseph Muscat. I didn’t like Alfred Sant much politically, but character wise, his strange, crafty character made for a change from the people-pleasing Gonzi. I couldn’t stand it when you targetted Sant personally, and almost constantly. I understand that a public person is open for target shooting, but yours was not criticism, it was deep hatred – especially when you passed immature and, um, somewhat dumb-arsed remarks, about him being seperated. I suppose it may have had to do with you being related to his ex-wife through your marriage. His ex-wife was rather diminutive wasn’t she? Similar to that, what was her name, Etoile Noir girl?
Anyhow… my point is, the way you’re targetting this Muscat dick, it’s similar to the way you targetted Sant. I have absolutely no like for Muscat, but, for the sake of a sweet lay, can’t you change your goddarn method of attack woman? Do you read English newspapers? Try to develop your pen into half the level of maturity and wit which most journalists of respected English newspapers have. You’re starting to sound like the sort of jack-crap I used to write on people when I was 17.
Daphne, your poodlemaniacs might appreciate this version of a famous sonnet:
Shall I compare thee to Alfred Sant?
Though art more ginger and more cuddly:
Rough Mike did shake when you dared fly in Schultz,
But the summer campaign’s too short for a wobbly;
Sometimes too hot do our hopeful eyes shine,
When your gold complexion graces our screens;
You promise to win and bring Divorce Divine,
To change nature’s course and do more than the greens.
But don’t let thy eternal promises fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair hair your predecessor wish’st for,
Nor let George blossom and leave you in his shade,
When you go to Brussels while his tree of delegates grow’st.
As long as you can smile and show your carrot-top for all to see,
Say so long to Sant, and save us from Goooonzi.
It’s by the latest newcomer on wordpress (frankly, and with all due respect to the current blog designer, I think you should migrate to wordpress for a more pleasant blog look) and he can be found here: http://sheepofwrath.wordpress.com
For the sake of all that is good and wonderful..PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, will someone explain this damn Mount Etna thing…please I beg of you…have mercy on my poor pathetic un-enlightened self..PLEASE.
“Peter Muscat” – You don’t even get it, do you? The PRat jokes were originally inspired by Alfred Sant’s PR obsession.
I wouldn’t talk about prats if I were you – Not with the current “favourite” of ‘your’ party looking as if he’s got a prat (and a ginger one, at that) stuck to his face, then getting endorsed by a gynae to boot.
PRudence PRevents PRactical PRofane PRonouncements a PRopos the PRime asPiRant.
Apologies. This idiot did not notice that the blog owner had posted it earlier. My bad.
Daphne , for the next thirty years or so you will be kept busy writing about this tragicomical soap opera which will keep unfolding in front of our eyes.
There is never a dull moment.
Presently we cannot keep up with what is being said , let alone with what is actually happening in the MLP.
Five years from now our present fourteen year olds would not believe this story.
My my Paul Jackson we are trying very hard to appear Min ta GonziPN hux?http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20080529/local/mlp-commission-tells-candidates-to-miss-xarabank
No need to go around telling everyone your political view. If you have an opinion just say it without adding the “Though a nationalist voter myself” as many of us do on this blog and many others!
@Daphne
Explain to your bloggers what ’emotional intelligence’ means and how crucial it is to have it for effective leadership as I bet you it is not just JM who has no idea what you are talking about.
You know what, since Martin Schultz endorsed JM I have started to like Berlusconi, which till recently would have been unthinkable.
@Brian Jackson/Paul Borg (or is it the other way round)
‘Being a nationalist voter'(sic) doesn’t mean you don’t think and speak from the prettiest part of J Lo…..
Besides it’s precisely because many like you think JM is the best of the lot that makes me feel sorry for the MLP supporters.
There’s still a week to go before the election, and things have already gone too far (endorsements, Bord tal-Vigilanza, orders not to go to Xarabank)… these coming days are going to be great fun!
It’s a dead giveaway when somebody starts a comment with the words (or variations of) “though I vote Nationalist/am a Nationalist supporter”. The letters pages of the newspapers were full of this sort of thing before I sniffed elves in their grotto.
Here’s ‘Paul Jackson’, this time from The Times on-line comments: “I’m a Nationalist voter myself but in this issue I believe that the MLP electoral commission has made a very wise choice….”
Ho-hum.
@Jacques Zammit: the WordPress look is cookie-cutter. They’re all variations of the same look.
Just dreaming…. what if old Dom puts his candidature as leader?
We have been through Martin Luther King, The Mahatma, The Great Leader . To me it seems more like Papa Doc and Baby Doc of Haiti fame.
Me would get a more faithful answer if he were to ask the hundreds of labourites who voted MLP this last election and are NOW seeking to join GonziPn because they are feeling ashamed of the party they were supporting throughout the years. And this is bound to have a snowball effect.
@amiro
Of course JM is the best, he is the only who represented malta and mlp in a foreign parliament, the only one who became a doctor (PhD) from outside (min barra) and the only one who was imfahar (endorsed) by the lejder of the united socialists of Europe. And besides all that he is still a zaghzugh not like the others and old gonzi.
There is no choice really amiro, and you being a nationalist should not interfere (tindahalx, ok? Ghax…), you are jelouse because with JM as leader your party will never stand a chance (qed tibzaw minnhu).
@Daphne
I agree with the three members of your family. I believe Joseph Muscat knew what he was doing and the implications that it may cause, but all he wanted was to impress the delegates and the party in general that he is the best contender for the post of leader in that having been successful in Brussel, he has what it takes to be a successful leader.
I think JM knows a lot about the emotional intelligence of the party delegates , he knows the way they behave and why , do not underestimate the guy, and remember that he has a band of strategists and schemers working in his favour (not necessarily hired by him).
When he stated that he had more foreign friends coming to endorse his candidature he was indirectly stating that he has many friends in high places who respect him and know him well ,like Herr Schultz . He still scored points in his favour with this move.
The delegates would be impressed by the many contacts JM has established in the last three years of hard work in Brussels.
Herr Shultz endorsed DoctorJosephMuscat’s ‘Bzar fl-Ghajnejn’…it goes well with all kinds of dishes like
Kawlata Referendum ma Vvutajtx
Tahwida tal-fazola Ghandi Holma
u platti ohrajn li jigu f’mohhi ad hoc specjalment U turns
JM
@Alex – possessed by the averag delegate
LOL! Quite right mate.
Really it’s true, with JM, PN will never stand a chance…. of being the opposition party!!!
A ‘snap election’ is a priority on the Agenda of the PN.
The oracles of the PN are predicting doom unless an early election is called asap.JPO and Nicholas Azzopardi … oh dear …
Coming Christmas is not going to be so blessed for some!
Klikkek fil-PN! Read what Dr Deguara says about John Dalli.
The coming storm is to sweep …. you lot decide who and what! lol
[Moderator – Are you drunk?]
@Peter Muscat – moderator got in before me…. it’s either that or you need the attention of your namesake.
Time will soon prove me right!!
@ Peter Muscat : “A ’snap election’ is a priority on the Agenda of the PN” .We heard this one before , now the MLP delegates must take a quick decision (as always) because an early election is on the doorstep.
http://stejjer.wordpress.com/
Once you’re all at this business of shameless self-promotion, I and only I can claim to have inspired the sonnet penned by caphenni and promoted by the Luxemburgish scribbler Jacques Rene Zammit.
It was I, Sigmund, your inspirational politician and muse for change.
@ Sigmund. Is it only on this blog that you feel the need to accentuate your ‘dottorat’? You’re not the only doktor around here, ruhi!