Silvio Berlusconi
In keeping with their Roman ancestors, it seems the Italian magistrates would prefer to "fiddle" while the country collapses.
Posted on 01/16/2004 11:29:52 AM PST by NYer
FONT FACE="Geneva,Arial,sans-serif" SIZE=2>For a man whose face is rarely far from a television screen a month is a long time out of the limelight.
Silvio Berlusconi, entertainment mogul and prime minister of Italy, has been unofficially missing from his country's radar since before Christmas.
And his invisibility has sparked a rash of rumours in Rome - rumours only exacerbated by continued absence during a turbulent time of business failure and anarchist bombings.
At least one newspaper has demanded in a front page editorial that the government comes clean if the premier is seriously ill.
Another rumour has an entire team of radiologists and cardiologists being helicoptered into the grounds of Mr Berlusconi's villa in Sardinia in the dead of night.
But yesterday, it appears, the mystery surrounding the case of the phantom PM may have been solved. According to La Stampa, Mr Berlusconi has had a bit of a nip and tuck.
The paper quoted the prime minister's doctor, Umberto Scapagnini, as saying the tycoon-turned-statesman had had "a small plastic surgery operation [on the area] round the eyes".
This would explain the peculiar remark of one of the few people who claimed to have seen him since December 20. Pumped by reporters, eager for any news of the phantom premier, Umberto Bossi, the Northern League's leader, who lunched with him on Monday, said: "I found him particularly taut".
Mr Berlusconi is suspected of having undergone plastic surgery on at least two previous occasions - in 2000 and in 1996, when he claimed to have been bitten by a spider.
La Stampa said the latest operation had been performed by a "renowned Parisian surgeon" who had also operated on the presenter of the evening news on one of Mr Berlusconi's three TV channels.
The reason given for his latest absence offers a fascinating insight into the time-management priorities of Italy's prime minister - and the values of the nation he governs. Not a single opposition politician yesterday questioned whether Mr Berlusconi's time might have been better spent at the cabinet table instead of on the operating table.
His absence witnessed the meltdown of the country's biggest industrial group, Parmalat; the dispatch - apparently by Italian extremists - of package bombs to a raft of leading European officials, and only days ago, the quashing by Italy's highest court of a law giving the prime minister, Mr Berlusconi and other top officials immunity from prosecution.
There again, a plastic surgeon elected to the Italian parliament once said that at least 20 of his fellow-MPs had had nips and tucks.
"The powerful," La Stampa remarked, "no longer have the faces they deserve."
But despite the mystery having been solved speculation is bound to continue that Mr Berlusconi, who had an operation for prostate cancer seven years ago, may be suffering from something more serious than dropped eyelids and a paunch. He also went missing for much of last November.
In keeping with their Roman ancestors, it seems the Italian magistrates would prefer to "fiddle" while the country collapses.
What's with Daschle's chin?
Did it get frostbitten or did he get collagen injections in it?
He is at a live press conference on C-Span with Pelosi now.
His lower chin looks strangely large and pale, especially when he looks to his left.
Can you post a picture? The only one of recent vintage that I could scrounge up is this one ....
I found some images of him by doing a search on google.
http://images.google.com/images?q=daschle&ie=ISO-8859-1&hl=en
I guess his chin has been like that for many years
I don't know why he looked so odd today. Maybe it had something to do with his standing next to Pelosi for so long.
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