Lu "resignation" not accepted

But Tomioka stood his ground. Realizing that logic had availed him nothing, Kuroshima exploded the bomb his chief had given him. "Admiral Yamamoto insists that his plan be adopted. I am authorized to state that if it is not, then the Commander in Chief of the Combined Fleet can no longer be held responsible for the security of the Empire. In that case he will have no alternative but to resign, and with him his entire staff." -- G. Prange, At Dawn We Slept, p297

Annette Lu, our Veep and Woman of Iron, decided to stay on as temporary DPP chairman in a decision that the Taipei Times labeled "surprising" although I can't imagine how anyone could have been surprised by it. The whole charade was merely a test to bring the unruly into line.

"But Lu accepted the committee members' reassurances of goodwill and decided to stay," Lee told a news conference after the meeting, which had lasted for three hours.

"We didn't vote about asking Lu to stay, and nobody opposed it. There was consensus among the committee members to ask Vice President Lu to stay," Lee said.

The more I watch Lu in the Chairman's seat, the more pleased I am by her driving. At a stroke she has shut everyone up and forced them to line up behind her. No doubt this pleasant agreement will vanish in a haze of faction fighting in a couple of weeks -- the election is the 15th of January -- but for the moment the DPP is being led -- driven, even. The Veep has a will of iron and a sharp political brain underneath it all. And some theatrical ability:

Lu wiped away tears at one point while Chou was asking her to stay on as acting leader, Ker said.

Tears are the Taiwanese politician's equivalent of the embattled American politician showing up for photo-ops with his whole family.

Take no prisoners, Annette! Looking forward to some good things coming out of the DPP, until the faction fighting begins in earnest....


[Taiwan] [DPP]