Silvio Berlusconi is at it again.  After a scandal filled year where he was accused of cavorting with teenagers and prostitutes, faced a divorce action by his long suffering wife, faced accusations that he was filling up parliamentary slates and his cabinet with models and actresses, and lost his legal immunity, Italy’s Prime Minster has now brazenly insulted the looks and intelligence of a female opposition politician in a manner which would have ended his career in any other western country.

Yet in spite of the outrage of Italian feminists, he remains in power aided by the absence of a credible national opposition candidate and his stranglehold over Italy’s electronic media. While columnists not on his payroll may fulminate for his removal, Berlusconi has still to run out of his nine lives.  Those in the United States who mocked the indiscipline of Bill Clinton or the lack of intellectual curiosity of George W. Bush can only watch with bemusement as the most shameless man to control a major industrial power in recent memory continues his charmed political existence.  While his colorful antics delight his supporters, Italy and its creaky political system are the victims.