The judge and his hangman

ODS is often described as Václav Klaus' one-man show, which means his support cast often gets less attention than it deserves. Sometimes, though, it's hard to overlook Jan Zahradil. He's one of Klaus' main hangmen, those who do the dirty work that's below Klaus' level. Klaus pronounces judgment on an issue, and Zahradil fills in the nasty details. This sometimes puts him in a strange position, because as an aspiring foreign minister, he would normally be expected to exercise more diplomacy. Last night on Czech Television, for example, Zahradil vaguely accused Jan Kasl of bribing journalists. He didn't make any effort to give any proof. (Kasl said he'll consider suing.) Ivan Pilip of US-DEU told Lidové noviny that there are people within ODS who bother him a lot more than Klaus, and Zahradil was the only one he mentioned by name.