I received a nice note about Red Hot Lies from an unlikely source today, accompanied by the question:
What are your thoughts on what Vaclav Klaus can do as EU leader? I believe he has said that the greatest threat to democracy is not socialism but environmentalism. Does he have the power to move the EU toward a realistic stand on climate change?
Klaus has six months to fight his own prime minister and the forces within his country who are desperate to don the vestments that will show what Good Europeans they are, while at the same time confronting the Brussels Beast. So he can engage in gestures; he can use his bully pulpit to raise the profile of various reasonable doubts and neglected facts; and he can delay things. But ultimately, the EU presidency isn’t about much more than that.
However, this is not to dismiss the symbolic impact he can have. Hence the New York Times hit piece today.