Word: figurehead
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Michael Grunwald's analysis of the sorry state of the Republican Party is the best of many I have read. But he assigns insufficient blame to the figurehead of the party for eight years, Bush, whose faith-based leadership alienated many who believe in secular government. His obstinacy in the face of evolving public opinion in favor of stem-cell research, equality for same-sex couples and women's reproductive rights underscored his failure to feel the pulse of modern America. Most of all, his my-way-or-the-highway foreign policy made the U.S. a global pariah. Bill Gottdenker...
...general had given only ''vacant excuses.'' Later, though, Cedras offered a compromise under which they would after all quit and be replaced by people named by Aristide. That was not acceptable to the U.S., which feared Cedras was concocting a formula under which Aristide would return only as a figurehead and the military leaders would retain the real power. But the conciliatory noises indicated the Haitian leaders were beginning to weaken under pressure and might bend further. In the meantime, events in Haiti continued to get uglier. Thugs called attaches -- officially auxiliary police but actually descendants of the Tontons Macoutes...
...recent months, the Thai political landscape has seemingly shifted. While opposition Red Shirt politicians still publicly pledge loyalty to the monarch, their figurehead, former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, has openly alleged that one of the King's closest advisers was behind the 2006 army coup that unseated him. That adviser, General Prem Tinsulanonda, has dismissed the charge. Thaksin and his Red Shirt cohorts have been at pains to underline that they don't think the King himself had anything to do with the putsch that overthrew one of Thailand's most popular - but also most divisive - Prime Ministers...
...some ways, Chen's trial is a positive sign that the justice system is alive in the Chinese world's sole democracy. But as the figurehead of the opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), which was founded to build democracy and fight corruption, his family's scandals have brought the party down, and DPP politicians have tried to distance themselves from the scandal - and the man himself...
...surely knows he'll have to give a little on his side to crack the embargo. The Cuban Taliban was certainly not the man for a diplomatic challenge like that. So if Raúl is smart, he chose his new Foreign Minister to be more than just a figurehead - and if Obama is wise, the White House will make the effort to engage the new man at Cuba's Foreign Ministry...