A bony hand reaches up and slides the crypt door open. Through the choking dust, a dark figure emerges from the shadows.
You thought you had seen the last of him.
You were wrong.
Rhee In-jae is back-ack-ack-ack(JoongAng):
Apologizing for his political flip-flops of the past, Representative Rhee In-je announced his third presidential bid yesterday.
“I want to become the presidential candidate of the new Moderate Unified Democratic Party and then win the presidential election,” Rhee said at a press conference. “Raising high a flag of reform for middle-of-the-roaders, I want to crush the Grand National Party in the presidential election.”
The race will be the third consecutive try for the country’s top job by the veteran politician known for switching party affiliations freely.
“In the last two presidential elections, the people supported me passionately, but all I did was disappoint them,” Rhee said. “I apologize to the people about my lack of virtue.”
This partial resume presented by the JoongAng gives a clue why Rhee is one of the most detested men in Korean politics:
In 1997, Rhee lost the conservative primary to Lee Hoi-chang under the New Korea Party, the Grand Nationals’ predecessor.
After losing, Rhee bolted, created his own party and ran in the presidential election. Kim Dae-jung’s 1997 victory is largely attributed to the split of the New Korea Party votes between Lee and Rhee.
After joining Kim’s Millennium Democratic Party, Rhee ran again in the primary in 2002, but never finished the race as he was overwhelmed by Roh Moo-hyun. He gave up, left the party shortly before the presidential election and joined the United Liberal Democrats.
Last year, he left the United Liberal Democrats to again create his own political party, and this year he deserted that party and joined the Democratic Party.
Really, the guy should have his own Wiki page as a prime example of the political opportunist. If nothing else, this will give the rest of the politicians running someone to kick around for the next few months.
12 Comments
I like it when this blog discusses election matters.
I know my mom despises Rhee In-jae with a passion for the ‘97 election split.
Well, does this mean he’s an opportunist or that he’s not afraid to overstep the party line?
according to what I heard, Lee In Jae is well respected in his choong chung district that elects him to the Korean Parliament.
They don’t see him as an opportunist at all.
I think he’s not afraid to overstep the party line, versus being an opportunist.
Lee Hoi Chang doesn’t have an excuse for losing to Kim Dae Jung. He only lost by less than 5%. Most of it’s due to his own dirtiness.
I know of at least one Los Angeles family from Kyong Sang Do which bragged in 1997 and 2002 about having line up correctly and was expecting to reap some, following the Korean elections of 1997 and 2002. They supported their confidence with some Jum Jane ee’s from Korea having verified the predictions that Lee Hoi Chang would be the new head of Korea. As I listened to this conversation over family dinners twice, I hoped their dirty dreams would never come true.
anyways, Lee In Jae can’t win. Everyone knows you need at least some Kyong Sang votes to win. That’s the formula. Given the anti Kim Dae Jung factor, Lee In Jae takes all the blame for Kim Dae Jung’s victory.
I personally think Lee In Jae can die and say
I did it my way.
He’s chasing after his own dreams.
remember, Lee Hoi Chang was a judge.
27.
wjk your flag
Posted July 9, 2007 at 12:17 pm | Permalink
would you call New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg an opportunist?
I won’t.
Well, if the good people of the Nonsan-Geumsan-Gyeryong electoral district like him, he must be an OK guy.
I don’t want to judge Lee personally, but it is true that most people in South Korea think he is an opportunist.
If Bloomberg moved from Republican to Democrat to Libertarian as Lee by analogy has, he’d also be an opportunist.
Its undeniable that Rhee took a significant chunk of conservative vote from Hannara and Lee Hoi-chang, being partly responsible for DJ’s narrow win.
The progressives are still candidate-less, and if Rhee is an opportunist, this is a perfect opportunity for another shot at the presidency.
But as said above already, he wont win. And this time he wont be splitting conservative votes either. Lets hope for this reign of liberalism to end.
For the record, I would label Bloomberg as an opportunist.
One jump may be OK but he has changed twice that I know of.
In addition to his penchant for changing parties nearly as often as many people change their socks, I seem to recall him claiming to be the same height as Park Chung-hee during the ‘97 campaign, maybe in a desperate attempt to get a few more votes from Yeongnam. Didn’t he also barricade himself in his house with some “bodyguards” a couple of years ago to avoid questioning and/or arrest? I don’t believe that he is taken that seriously anymore, but this is the land of the comeback.
Back in the day, kinda liked Rhee. Seemed like a fresh alternative to Lee Hoi-chang in 1997. (BTW, to say Rhee lost in a “primary” to Lee is to make pretty liberal use of the term, IMO.)
That he jumped ship after being shut out (yes, in fact, I do having something of a gift for mixed metaphors) didn’t seem intolerably opportunistic at the time.
But I got a closer look at Rhee (literally) in the beginning of 2002, or was it the end of 2001 - anyway it was snowing so let’s assume it was winter.
Asked to be on a education policy advisory committee for Rhee in his capacity as a National Assembly rep. Quickly became apparent at our first (and last) meeting that this was classic bait-and-switch. This was about organizing us to support his presidential candidacy. Nothing more.
That got off the ground like a lead zeppelin. A group of professor-politicians we were not.
What sticks with me was the way Rhee’s slimy consigliere breathlessly whispered to a colleague, “just think, if he wins, we’ll be at the center of power!”
And actually, at the time, he was the hands-down favorite. None of us even knew who the hell Roh Moo-Hyun was. Unfortunately, that changed.
Anyway, my 2 cents: whether Rhee could be a good president, I don’t know. Whether he could be an effective used car salesman, I’m in little doubt.
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