Misha Saakashvili, Character Assassin

The most recent New Yorker features an interesting profile on Mikheil Saakashvili, the Georgian President I love to hate. Misha does not come off very well, to say the least. I was particularly turned off by his habit of resorting to character assassination when questioned about criticisms he’s received from his political opponents.

In late November, one of his former allies, Erosi Kitsmarishvili…said during parliamentary hearings that he believed Saakashvili had been planning to invade South Ossetia for some time. … Saakashvili dismissed his criticisms (“Erosi has always been all about the money,” he told me), and his government denied the charges.

Then, later in the article:

Nino Burjanadze, who had been one of the leaders of the Rose Revolution but split from Saakashvili’s party…announced that she had forty-three questions for Saakashvili about the events of the summer, and called for an official inquiry. (When I asked Saakashvili about Burjanadze, he said, “Nobody likes her.”)

Following Misha’s lead, I won’t bother to mention any of Saakashvili’s reprehensible behavior to back up my assertions, and I won't attempt to engage in any kind of useful discussion of what should be done about Russia or Georgia. Instead, I will simply say this: Saakashvili is hotheaded and arrogant. Nobody likes him except russo-phobic ex-cold warriors. He is an embarrassment to America, as we continue to back him in a myopic attempt to counter perceived Russian revanchism. Let’s hope his days as the leader of Georgia are numbered.