Yeah, Who Saw That Coming?

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s party won a landslide victory in a parliamentary election.

Yeah, like that was a surprise.

There is a joke going around Russia that goes like this:

Bush was looking at a grim election forecast. He called up Putin and said: "Vladimir, you sure know how to win elections. My party is in trouble, can you send a couple of advisers to help me out?" Putin agrees and sends his guys. The elections occur and the results are: The United Russia Party wins control of Congress!

On the other hand, Hugo Chavez's referendum to make him a virtual dictator failed. One of Chavez's lines in the days before the referendum was right out of the Rove-Cheney playbook: Chavez said that a vote against his proposals would be a vote for George Bush. It worked as well as Cheney's desperate screed did in 2006. It's not surprising that Chavez would use that line, for other than Chavez's penchant for socialism, he and Cheney are brothers under the skin.