SHINZO ABE, BUSH'S JAPANESE PAL, SUFFERS CATACLYSMIC DEFEAT IN ELECTIONS-- JUST AS THE GOP WILL NEXT YEAR

Japan's Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, is a right wing kook cut from the Bush mold. And, like Bush, his widespread unpopularity has turned to disdain and even hatred. That unpopularity and disdain was expressed today at the polls when Japanese voters elected a new upper house of Parliament, something like our Senate. And the same way that most political observers see well-known Bush's rubber stamp senators like Susan Collins (R-ME), Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Norm Coleman (R-MN), Pete "Sneaky Pete" Domenici (R-NM), Ted Stevens (R-AK), John Sununu (R-NH), possibly even John Cornyn (R-TX), Elizabeth Dole (R-NC), and John Warner (R-VA), many of Abe's most loyal rubber stamps went down to ignominious defeat today at the hands of the Democratic Party.

The main opposition Democratic Party seized control of the upper house by a landslide, capturing seats not only in cities but also in rural districts that have long been strongholds of the Liberal Democratic Party. The rout was widespread, with household names in the governing party falling one after another before opposition newcomers.

In a devastating rebuke to Mr. Abe, angry voters punished him for his mishandling of bread-and-butter issues and a series of scandals in a government seemingly in disarray. Past prime ministers have resigned in the face of similar losses, but Mr. Abe, even before all votes were counted, tried to head off inevitable questions about his leadership.

Instead of working on actual bread-and-butter problems that Japanese voters are concerned with, Abe "rammed through laws to instill patriotism in schools, elevate the status of Japan’s military and prepare for a referendum on revising the pacifist Constitution." Of the 121 seats being contested, Abe's coalition needed 64 to maintain a majority. They eked out only 43.

Unlike Republicans in the U.S., who would do anything to disassociate themselves from Bush and Cheney but can't, the misnamed Liberal Democrats (they are a right-wing party, a kind of cross between the GOP and the Nazi Party) are expected to kick Abe out of the leadership before the next election. The leader of the Democratic Party, Ichiro Ozawa, "focused on building support in rural areas whose backing the Liberal Democrats had secured for decades with public works projects and agricultural subsidies. Results showed that Mr. Ozawa’s party won overwhelmingly in rural Japan." It might be worth noting that last year in the U.S., the Democratic Party defeated quite a few Republican incumbents in once-safe rural strongholds. In 2008, Democrats are likely to win at least 2 dozen House seats in largely rural areas, from upstate New York to Illinois, Ohio, Missouri, Arizona, and California.