DEAN SWIFT is very critical of Zapatero, his government, and the ruling Socialist party over how they deal with the opposition:

It must require a lot of cheek for the PSOE to accuse the PP of 'disloyalty' when the administration has passed every second of the last five years trying to wipe the PP off the political map; in addition to attempting to build a kind of fence surrounding the Moncloa and its inhabitants, to discourage rough men and women who disagree with the PSOE from voicing their opinion; and signing pacts with the smaller parties which disallow their forming any with the Popular Party. And in one recent case actually buying votes from Coalición Canaria and the PNV. . .

Now, as things grow steadily worse every day, when the unemployment figures inexorably rise; when eighty-seven Spanish servicemen and women have died in Afghanistan, though none of the dead knew why they were there. . . now, the Popular Party is 'disloyal' and 'critical' because it does not come running to help clear up the mess.. According to this theory, loyalty means bashing the opposition with every weapon available when things are going rather well: but when the going is not so good, expecting to be saved in the nick of time by the good Samaritans in the Popular Party. The news is not good. There are no good Samaritans in the Popular Party, which has been violently criticised and insulted by the PSOE since 2004.

Read the rest. It's been really amazing to watch people on the Spanish left shouting "fascist" at Bush when they felt he wasn't "respecting anyone who disagrees with him" (you should see the big play that Ari Fleischer's "sometimes you need to watch what you say" got in Spain... even if it was taken out of context!), while the Spanish government and the Socialists hurl extremely serious accusations of treason, being anti-Spanish, not decent, and so forth, against their opponents, as routinely as when they say "ood morning". Sometimes even from the podium at a press briefing in the presidential compound. That's something that Bush would have never done, even if he had gone back to drinking.