502 Spanish Verbs?

"Democracy is synonymous with liberty, and, today, Mexico lives in a true system of liberties," Fox said in the last Informe of his six-year term. "Today, democracy is the verb and the noun of national life."

Is it just me, or does that sound like something Rove would say through W?

This from the recorded & rebroadcast version of Vicente Fox's Informe, the equivalent of the State of the Union address, which he failed to read in person, yesterday. Continuing antagonism in Mexico City regarding the recent election slowed Fox yesterday not just along the route to Congress--which he managed, though 20 minutes late, in his armored SUV motorcade--but also in the building itself, where a contingent of PRD and PT (Worker's Party) representatives harangued him:

Once inside the vestibule, however, the president stood down. Rather than challenge the opposition legislators on the stage, Fox bowed to the wishes of many congressmen even in his own party that he not further inflame the country's political conflict.

What the linked Tribune article doesn't make clear is that this antagonism toward Fox isn't about the electoral tribunal or the demand for a recount (over which Fox has no official authority) but about infelicities during the election itself, in which Fox took part in his party's (PAN) attempts to cast Lopez Obrador as a Mexican version of Hugo Chavez, as regressive, as a "danger" to Mexico. Rules about campaigning in Mexico are really clear about the kinds of lies you can get away with telling about your opponent--and who can make such claims at all. The standing president isn't really supposed to take part in that and, the statistically valid demand for a full recount aside, lots of folks are just angry that PAN essentially ran a Rove-style campaign (well, it wasn't nearly so ugly as they get here in the States). Angry enough that they prevented the state of the union address for the first time in, oh, 180 years.

Maybe if Fox reminds everyone how free and democratic Mexico is, they'll just quietly return home?

Better still: Mexico needs to fabricate a serious threat, and fast. Here's one, off the top of my head: Islamofascist terrorists who hate Mexican freedom and lardy decadence are targeting legislative bodies.

Then they can go back to the security of total secrecy.