Nov 20 2005
What Is Sharon Thinking?
Ariel Sharon has announced he is leaving the Likud party which he has been a part of for decades and is striking out to start a new party.
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon will quit his ruling Likud party to run separately in national elections and will ask Israel’s president to dissolve parliament for a snap poll, a source in Sharon’s office said on Sunday.
The source confirmed a report on Israeli Army Radio that the 77-year-old Israeli leader had made the decision to break with the right-wing party he help found in a dramatic bid to change the Israeli political landscape and boost peacemaking.
Sharon would go to President Moshe Katsav on Monday and ask him to call an early national election, the report said.
That would be like Speaker Hastert quitting the Republicans and running as an independent prior to the 2006 elections. I am not sure what Sharon hopes will happen, but these kinds of acts rarely produce the earth shaking changes intended. But all pessimism aside – I for one would like to see the partisan lines in many countries shaken up and moved around a bit since we seem to be in a stalemate position – and have been for years.
Well, it will be interesting to see if Sharon can get a ruling coalition as an independent. I am not optimistic, but it will be interesting.
No, they’re parliamentarian over there, except for the direct elections for PM, so it’s far more like Tony Blair quitting Labour and creating a new centrist party based on the fact that his party is no longer with him on key elements of his platform.
It’s not like Hastert at all.
LOL! Granted, comparing a parliamentary government to another one is a more direct comparison. But if you wanted to make a comparison to the US system Hastert’s Speakership is the closest one here in the states.