After the Revolution

The U.S. media tends to break down State of the Union addresses as if they were sporting events.

They count the number of breaks for applause, show replays of important people falling asleep and list most-used words.

Imagine how much fun they’d have if Congress were more like Ukraine’s parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, where a fistfight that broke out among lawmakers prompted Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko to cancel his State of the Union address this week.

Members of Ukraine’s pro-Russia parties, the Party of Regions and Communist Party, have been hopping mad since Yushchenko, Parliamentary Speaker Arseniy Yatsenyuk and Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko sent a love letter to NATO without consulting the parliament first.

See my entry about the letter here.

They’re not the first Ukrainian politicians to resort to blows this winter, either.

Earlier this month Kiev’s mayor, Leonid Chernovetsky, accused his political rival Yuriy Lutsenko of “kicking him in the face and the groin” after a meeting on Jan. 18.

Lutsenko admitted to having hit Chernovetsky, but says the mayor was the one who started the fight and that he deserved the “manly slap” for defaming him.

There’s a new way of avoiding allegations of fraud at the ballotbox. Decide the next election by Ultimate Fighting.