Crimes and misdemeanors

Mirek Topolánek's jeans were so tight when he posed for a gay magazine that it's no wonder his air-deprived brain led him astray. His comments about the church, homosexuals and Jews during the photo shoot weren't in the same category as the inebriated Mel Gibson's a few years ago, but they caused an outrage in the tiny Czech pond. When Topolánek wore a nice- fitting €2,500 English suit to a town meeting with the Council on Czech Competitiveness two weeks ago, he had no excuse for making asphyxial comments. Yet some of his remarks were much more politically astonishing. He admitted, for example, that all the defense deals while he was prime minister - from the Tatra trucks to the Pandur armored vehicles - were rigged. (Jaroslav Plesl first reported a slightly bowdlerized version of this comment in LN.) He also spoke of the racketeering and mafia practices in Prague. Heavy stuff, yet there has been no outrage. If a Czech politician must go, it's almost always for one of the smallest of his sins. [Czech Republic Hilton Steyr General Dynamics corruption Lidové noviny Lui]