Find a high-paying job for Napieralski. Fast. For everyone’s benefit.
I am going to propose something vile, unsavory and downright dirty.
And I am going to propose it for the public good.
I propose the broad promotion of dark corners lobbying and behind-closed-doors deal making. I propose channeling corporate and other money to high-paid well-placed lobbyists who schmooze with Polish legislators round the clock. I propose opening Parliamentary doors to corporate big-wigs drawing big salaries to wine and dine MPs. I support government subsidies to get such a fledgling dirty lobbying industry on its feet.
And here’s why: because loser Polish politicians who have failed once, twice, three strikes but not out, need a place to go. A place largely out of sight, but where their limited qualifications have some use. A place where television appearances – which run a rather high risk of irritating me – are actually bad for their shady business dealings.
Because I can’t really take it anymore.
What does one really have to do to get a red card in Polish politics? Does anyone ever just go away?
Poland is a training ground for libertarians. By not giving its failed politicians a back door to (something that at least they might consider) self-respecting employment – or anything to take those losers out of the public eye – Poland drives home the point day after day ad nauseum that politicians by and large are people who, by definition, don’t know how to create value (read: hold a real job) in the real world. If they could, they would. Or might. Or at least have something to fall back on.
Since the election, the TV screens have been filled not only with the winners, not only the recent losers (SLD’s Napieralski), but the likes of Leszek Miller, Roman Giertych, Jozef Oleksy and other loser reminders of yesteryear. Sometimes a yesteryear better forgotten.
Roman Giertych, I understand, is a lawyer. And is making a living. God bless him. I will almost tolerate his presence. I do not understand the motivations of the television producers, but I do appreciate the fact that Roman doesn’t necessarily need the limelight. I worry that he kindles hopes of comeback, but I kindle my own hopes that he at least has an option to stay away.
But journalists are asking former Prime Minister Leszek Miller (perhaps you recall a not so distant connection to perhaps the greatest corruption scandal in post-communist Poland?) if he would take charge of SLD now that Napieralski is on the outs following that little election fiasco. People! The very fact that Leszek Miller is still free to take the job – six plus years after Rywingate – should disqualify him. Leszek, get a job.
Former Prime Minister Jozef Oleksy, once upon a time, had given hope. After “leaving” politics, he showed up as a supervisory board member for a listed residential real estate developer responsible for smoothing over business deals in Russia. Alleluia! The former Prime Minister, accused of being a Russian spy, finally putting his qualifications to work for the greater good. But what happened? Sometime later we all heard the announcement of his pending glorious return, secretly recorded: “I’ve been reading a lot of books and I am going to be sharp as a f***ing razor” (no, I am not making that up) and, true to his word, here he is. On TV. Sounding wise as ever.
My advice: Somebody find Grzegorz Napieralski [who led the leftist party SLD to a jaw-dropping defeat in the elections] a well paying job doing nothing somewhere. Anywhere. Right Now! And I mean well paying, no half-assed measures. Nothing less than Senior Executive Vice President of Company X for Management Board Private Indiscretions. Big bucks. Give it to him now, under threat of having him return to politics.
[My vote for best tweet of the week went like this: SLD survived the Moscow Loan (what it sounds like), Olina (Oleksy's alleged code name as a Russian spy), Rywingate (see above), but not Napieralski. It turns out that that this is truly a historic figure.]
Americans loathe the practice of having failed and compromised politicians go to private lobby practice. Vote a person out of office and they just take the higher paid office down the hall or down the street. It’s vile. They keep doing what they’ve always done, only for bigger money and outwardly against the public interest. Corporate and special interest money. When I lived there, I derailed it too.
But for about the past 72 hours, I have seen the light. Genius.
