The great nomination purge that is taking place in the Grand National Party is also affecting folks in the United (for the moment) Democratic Party.
The biggest name to lose his spot was the man, the myth, Rhee In-jae.
Unlike many of the other legislators who lost their spots, he didn’t fall because of corruption. So what got him? According to the JoongAng:
[T]he guidelines aren’t what felled Rhee In-je, one of the top figures in the party.
Instead, a few unnamed officials said, Rhee was not chosen to run because he has bolted his party too many times in the past, whenever it fell out of popularity.
It seems that someone has finally stuck a stake in the beast.
So what are Rhee’s options now?
If Rhee decides to run for a seat in the National Assembly in the April elections, he will have to run as an independent or join the party recently launched by Lee Hoi-chang.
Rhee In-jae in Lee Hoi-chang’s Liberal Forward Party after Rhee’s bolting from the GNP in 1997 produced this?
Granted, the elder Lee would like to see his party pick up as many seats as possible next month, but he cannot possibly be that desperate.
BTW, that JoongAng piece shows a very unhappy Rhee grabbing Sohn Hak-kyu’s arm to complain about being purged. With the top two parties being run by GNP guys, perhaps Rhee really has no option but to run as an independent.
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Sure he can. Kim Dae-jung made Kim Jong-pil prime minister, and JP literally tried to kill DJ in 1973.
Is Rhee’s political career dead? Rule No. 1 in modern Korean politics: presidents and parties come and go, but Rhee In-jae is forever. In a worst case scenario, he’ll run as an independent in Nonsan-Geumsan and (I’d imagine) win.
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[...] major party candidates playing off each other for Rhee to make it. As you may recall, the UDP gave Rhee the boot in the run-up to this [...]