Venerdi Fausto Bertinotti ne ha fatti di tutti i colori

That is "Friday Fausto Bertinotti misbehaved by waving a rainbow flag"

Fausto Bertinotti is leader of the more left wing of the two still communist parties in Italy. With their big big 0.07% margin in the popular vote, the Italian center left can not be picky when deciding who is an acceptable ally, so he is currently part of the governing majority. In a desperate effort to make him behave himself, his allies elected him president of the chamber of deputies, a very honorable and dignified position which is explicitly "istituzionale" that is non partisan. He is supposed to be fair to the opposition and to speak in defence of the perogatives of the chamber of deputies. In particular, the president of the camera is, by the original definition, the center. The original left were the French deputies in the Parliament of 1848 who chose to sit to the left of the President (this shows that French lefties are dislexic since it is obvious that the left would be left out and considered sinister while the right would be perceived to be right).

Fausto is trying to sit to his own left. To do so, he brought a rainbow flag to the festa della repubblica Friday. In Italy the rainbow flag is not a gay pride symbol, it is a pacifist symbol. In March 2003 they were all over the place vainly attempting to convince Bush Blair and Berlusconi against invading Iraq. Now there are a few faded rainbow flags left (not my fault my daughter took ours to a demonstration and forgot it there).

Bertinotti thus demonstrates that Italy too has idiots who consider it hostile to the troops to tell them to come back from hell.

However he has also demonstrated, for the nth time, his dangerous narcissism. He must protest even when he is part of the majority in parliament and that majority has declared its intention to withdraw all Italian troops from Iraq and he must he *must* be the center of controversy. His allies will have to find an even more honerable position. I hasten to add that I oppose running him up the flagpole although I admit that I am tempted by the idea.

The Italian center left needs policy not polemic, substance not symbols, reason not rage, thoughts not shouts, verity not vanity ...

Damn that guy makes me write like Warren Gamaliel Harding(search for "heroics" hah). Will I end up sounding like George W Bush if he stays in the news ? Wonder if he likes Alaskan king crab.