All Shih all the Time

Saruman laughed again. "Not he! When his tools have done their task he drops them."

The Shih Ming-te campaign continues, although outside of Taipei one would never know. Target date for the formal beginning of the sit-in is after President Chen returns from his visit to Palau, September 9th, 10 days off, three lifetimes in politics. Thus, the Shih campaign needs to keep itself in the public eye by constant talk and action for the next 10 days, giving plenty of opportunity for stupidity to occur. Fortunately the papers have reported that the DPP plans to soften its approach and give Shih the rope he needs to hang himself.

The Chinese papers reported this morning that Shih's complaints about the fence-sitting of Mayor Ma Ying-jeou, Chairman of the KMT and darling of the Deep Blues, had driven some of the good Mayor Ma's supporters -- who appear to be career suckers -- to demand their NT$100 back from the campaign. Shih is going to find out that his old enemies/new friends will back him precisely as long as remains useful, and not one second longer."When his tools have done their task he drops them." I would estimate Shih's shelf-life is about the biblical forty days.....and then it is back to the political wilderness.

Yesterday Shih's new spokesman said that the campaign would hold practice sit-ins.

According to Jerry Fan (范可欽), a new spokesman for Shih's campaign, organizers will prepare 230 seats for the "trial" sit-in on Ketagalan Boulevard in front of the Presidential Office between Sept. 1 and Sept. 7, and later at the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall on Sept. 8.

Shih will officially begin the sit-in protest on Sept. 9 after Chen returns from a state visit to Palau.

Shih's movement has decided to launch "trial" protests first in order to boost interest in the event.

Not to mention keep Shih in the public eye. The campaign, Spokesman Fan also announced, is changing its name from the anti-Chen campaign to the Anti-Corruption campaign. You won't see it going after anyone in the KMT or PFP, though.

Shih's shift to a new spokesman was apparently the result of previous spokeswoman Ho De-fen exceeding the bounds of good sense the other day:

Wang also demanded that Ho De-fen (賀德芬), a spokeswoman for Shih's camp, apologize to the public and to DPP Legislator Wang Sing-nan (王幸男) for insinuating that he had planted two bags outside Shih's headquarters on Monday that staff at Shih's headquarters reported to police, concerned that they were bombs.

Taiwan, DPP, Ma Ying-jeou, Chen Shui-bian, Taipei, Shih Ming-deh/Shih Ming-te