Not just in massage, but in pretty much everything else.

it’s time to form a committee of some sort to put on a show of cleaning up the party after some scandal

The People’s Committee For Political Reform and Ethics. Sounds like a Berkeley student group…

Most of Lee Myung-bak’s supporters will look at this and think it is very becoming behavior for the businessman he was in Thailand working for Hyundai when he um, acquired this piece of wisdom. None of them expect him to have any personal sense of ethics or morality at all. If anything the story will reassure them that he will not try to be the moralist Roh has been at the expense of…. well, anything that being moral and principled can cost you. Even people who share his his brand of ultra-right Korean protestantism (the type who wave American flags at their anti-NK protests and wanted Da Vinci Code banned) are not going to see this as a major flaw.

This was true for Lee Hoi-chang, too. Most of the people who voted for him cannot tell you, and indeed do not even feel the need to believe, that there wasn’t probably something illegal in the way both his sons evaded military service.

When Lee MB was in North Chungcheong this summer the provincial governor told him that if he was a Joseon era governor he would have sent a gisaeng belonging to the provincial government house to Lee’s hotel room in the night, and that he was sorry he was unable to do so. Lee responded by saying, “You mean the one that came last night wasn’t sent by you?” In other words, this latest episode isn’t even going to surprise anyone who has been paying attention.

Anyways, so while I agree with Andy in principle, I do think the segment of the population (mostly older and rural types or upper middle class Seoulites who got where they are through less-than-ethical means) that supports candidates like Lee MB and Lee HC is dwindling, and in a very tight race comments like these could have an influence among younger types.

In the meantime what I think is especially unfortunate is that progressive candidates get to appeal to voters who won’t stand for a slimebag in office just by virtue of having the moral high ground (and I blame Roh for making a lot of voters think that relatively principled politics is bad for the economy).

There are plenty of good people in the GNP who are fine and principled people but don’t stand a chance in that party, where until now they have been used generally only for the value of their names when it’s time to form a committee of some sort to put on a show of cleaning up the party after some scandal, etc.