Anyone familiar with Italian politics: What kind of hack is Berlusconi?

[BurtWorm]

I've assumed that anyone who can stay in office in Italy for as long as Berlusconi has has to be competent at least at staying in office. But the Niger forgeries are making me wonder if that's his only talent. Is he an Italian version of Bush, who hires idiotic cronies to do hackwork for him? Is this typical of Italian politics beyond Berlusconi? Is the SISMI crowd allegedly responsible for this (as far as Ledeen and Ghorbanifar and their crowd are NOT responsible for it) professional hacks, or are they cronies of Berlusconi?

[soothsayer]

1. Dunno, but a tour guide said the new PM is a bastard (same with

the new pope, lol!)

[mirandapriestly]

2. That's probably the most accurate assessment you'll get. That's funny. nt

[skypilot]

3. Don't know much about Italian politics but...

...my impression of Berlusconi has always been that he is what Bush and Cheney aspire to be: a corporatist ruler with a seeming strangehold on power.

[Zynx]

4. He reminds me of Stanley Baldwin in the UK back in the 1930s.

He was good at getting into power, but he was crappy at governance.

[BurtWorm]

6. Kind of like the Bushists.

;)

[tocqueville]

5. check him under "controversy"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlusconi

Berlusconi is mainly considered in Europe as a rotten politician. The other members of the European family have to deal with him, since he was democratically elected and with the fact that Italy belongs to the major industrial powers.

He won't be reelected and probably a lot will show up afterwards. A lot of people want to see him in jail.

[leveymg]

7. Try these articles at BBC

He obviously holds Mussolini as a role model, including the phony populism and the "cleaning" meme while being enormously corrupt in his own abuse of power.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/3034600.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3392973.stm

Enter stage right

All that changed in 1993, when Mr Berlusconi founded his own political party, Forza Italia - Go Italy - named after a chant used by fans of the AC Milan football club - which he also owns.

He saw his chance as judges in Milan purged the country's old political class in "Operation Clean Hands", aimed at eliminating the corruption which had tainted public life.

In 1994, Mr Berlusconi became prime minister, forming a coalition with the right-wing National Alliance and Northern League.

But rivalries between the three leaders, coupled with Mr Berlusconi's indictment for tax fraud by a Milan court, led to the collapse of the government just seven months later.

As ever, Mr Berlusconi refused to be deterred and spent the next few years re-organising his party.

By 2001, he was back on the throne, in coalition once more with his former partners.

Immunity

But accusations have continued to dog him.

The corruption trial involves claims that he tried to bribe judges to stop a business rival taking over state-owned food group SME in the 1980s.

[BurtWorm]

8. Ew.

He'd fit right in in the Republican party.

[leveymg]

9. He's a role model, himself, for other Right-wing il Dulce wannabes

Ruling figures of the Italian Right model themselves on the intriquing Princes of the Cities of old. Think of the personal corruption of the Borges mixed with the philosophy of power articulated by Machiavelli.

Lots of poisonings, court fixing, and payolla to legislators. Voters are almost beside the point, except when they physically rise up and hang their rulers.

Berlusconi, Likud, neo-Peronists, and the Republicans have common roots and approaches: corruption and war are good ways to take power -if you have problems governing, the solution is more of the same.