Exit, pursued by a bear.
-Stage direction
Shakespeare's "The Winter's Tale"
Is it some kind of requirement that a politician who's finally leaving the
stage has to depart with a graceless blast at the press, the opposition or
the universe in general?
Call it the Nixon Rule, as in Richard Nixon's whine when he lost a race for
governor of his native California in 1962: "As I leave you, I want you to
know - just think about how much you're going to be missing. You won't have
Nixon to kick around any more, because, gentlemen, this is my last press
conference." (He was wrong about that, too.)
Ehud Ohlmert followed the Nixon Rule last week when he announced his long
anticipated resignation as Israel's premier just ahead of the Israeli
prosecutors digging into his personal finances: "I was forced to defend
myself against relentless attacks by self-styled fighters for justice who
sought to oust me from my job and saw all means as justifying of that end."
Mr. Olmert leaves behind a record strewn with failure after failure - all
rooted in overweening ambition, ethical insensibility, poor judgment, and
the kind of arrogance typical of successful politicians who haven't been
caught yet. All that on top of a general incompetence, which in his case was
exacerbated by a lack of any extensive military experience in a country that
must regularly defend its existence on the battlefield.
The one thing Ehud Olmert seemed adept at was political intrigue, and now
even that talent seems to have been undone by his avarice. The most
embarrassing part of his leave-taking is the sheer tawdriness of the
accusations against him. They add a final, grace(less) note to his fall:
taking envelopes of cash Spiro Agnew-style, double and triple billing for
travel expenses, always holding his hand out for more. Is this a prime
minister or a small-time grafter? What's he supposed to be guilty of -
double bookkeeping and incessant schnorring?
Mr. Olmert's more dangerous shortcomings as a leader were on embarrassing
display during the course of the Second Lebanon War two years ago this
month. Israel somehow managed to fight to a draw only because of the courage
and improvisation of her common soldiers - the kind of long-suffering
reservists who pull on their boots and hustle off to the nearest front
whenever word comes that there's another war on. Once again they had to
overcome the faults of their leaders, whose incompetence didn't keep them
from being arrogant, too.