Czech Mate
May we all pause for a moment to appreciate Václav Klaus? I'm often asked which politician strikes me as Margaret Thatcher's heir. He's top of my list. Sadly, he's not eligible to run for president.
A selection of recent great Klaus moments, for your pleasure:
"This is the time for international organizations, including the United Nations, to reduce their expenditures, make their administrations thinner, and leave the solutions to the governments of member states."
Klaus on Global Governance: "Total Leftist Cosmopolitan Nonsense"
"I am in favour of accepting anyone in the EU."
Klaus on Global Warming: Socialist Claptrap
"There are huge material (very pecuniary) and even bigger psychological incentives for politicians and their bureaucratic fellow-travellers to support environmentalism. It gives them power. This is exactly what they are searching for. It gives them power to organise, regulate, manipulate the rest of us. There is nothing altruistic in their environmentalist stances."
Klaus on Barack Obama: Not Much of a Beer Man
"But he might drink those, how do you say? ... piña coladas.”
Think we can write him in?
- Comment (12)
- · Quote
- · UnfollowFollow (1)
Comments :
Jun '10
Re: Czech Mate
Well, we already know he doesn't need a birth certificate.
OOOPS
Re: Czech Mate
I'll overlook that on "legitimately funny" grounds.
Jul '10
Re: Czech Mate
He seems to be the best and bravest politician around these days... by far!
Re: Czech Mate
Claire, My favorite quote is one he delivered to great applause at the World Economic Forum in Davos about the oh-so-fashionable conceit about a middle way between free markets and socialism:
“The Third Way is the fastest way to the Third World."
Re: Czech Mate
Claire, that pina colada quip has had me laughing all morning.
But on a serious note: Klaus wrote a great piece in the Financial Times back in January 2009. Here's a highlight:
May '10
Re: Czech Mate
I do appreciate him. I can't help but think of Milton Friedman when I hear of him. I also appreciate you. I just saw your interview on Uncommon Knowledge,it was great.
Re: Czech Mate
He's solid. I was sorry to realize, though, that the headline "Czech Mate" is not nearly so clever or original as I'd thought. It seems to be the headline of at least 80 percent of the pieces written about him. Oh, well.
Jul '10
Re: Czech Mate
I was relating some of Vaclav's highlights to my friend. He said, "Man I miss Donald Rumsfeld."
It was so fun to watch him give Pentagon correspondents' knickers a twist at press briefings.
Of course that didn't finish so well, but it was great theater.
Re: Czech Mate
As it happens, I'm boarding a plane in fifteen minutes, headed to Prague. I spent yesterday reading up on Klaus -- and boy is he cool. I think it helps to know, in your bones, from your experience, just how bad socialism can be. It must amaze him to listen to the fatuous nonsense of his European peers who never had to worry about Soviet tyranny, thanks to the most productive and dynamic economy in history, and its willingness to foot the bill for western Europe's defense.
May '10
Re: Czech Mate
Klaus and John Howard (ex Australian PM) are my favorite politicos of the last two decades. Straight talk with humour and facts is refreshing and rare.
Jun '10
Re: Czech Mate
We shouldn't forget the other great Czech politician, Vaclav Havel (great playwright, dissident, president of Czechoslovakia who led it out of the communist wilderness into a multi-party democracy, and who oversaw the peaceful break-up of the Czech Republic and Slovakia). Both Vaclavs are straight-shooting politicians who actually like Western culture--I'm too old, but perhaps younger believers in democracy and a free market economy should begin naming their sons Vaclav.
I'm aware that the two Vaclavs were political rivals--but both are great men.
Edited on Sep 27, 2010 at 10:16amRe: Czech Mate
Thank you, tmcm1! Hey, how do you pronounce your name?