72 lawmakers fail to stop ChaCha train1.  Victory is 3% The idea is to tar and feather those opposed by saying they all aspire to be either senator or president (you know, just like the President and the Speaker -and members of the cabinet who continue to pore over surveys on their chances to be elected to the Senate, “just in case”).

The buzz in politically-interested circles is, of course, Winnie Monsod’s Saturday column, in which she comes out swinging against Constitutional amendments as proposed by the President:Come, Ms President, you know fully well that the signature campaign shows the mark of government forces and traditional politicians behind it….  Because the first section of the proposed new Article XVIII, titled “Transitory Provisions,” effectively ensures it: “The incumbent President and Vice President shall serve until the expiration of their term at noon on the thirtieth day of June 2010 and shall continue to exercise their full powers under the 1987 Constitution unless impeached by a vote of two-thirds of all the members of the interim parliament.”…  I repeat, they are not, have never been, and should not be considered lackeys or unthinking hacks or apologists of the President or her coalition.Where I do think they can be legitimately criticized is for ignoring that they have been unintentionally serving as props to her continued stay in office (there is a difference between partisan support and a kind of critical, and conditional collaboration that may be useful to the administration, whether those seeing themselves as critical and independent like it or not).

Marcos, ’71 a Free Press editorial cartoon by the late E.Z.