The Devil you know

You're going to have to forgive me. Some bloggers use a lot of rude words, but I try to avoid that as much as possible here. However, the latest developments at FIFA leave me no choice but to use two words that really have no place in polite company. Ready? Here goes then: Henry Kissinger.

Yes, loveable old tyrant-hugger Hank is being tapped up by FIFA and Sepp Blatter to provide advice on transparency and justice, as part of the alleged reform of the organisation. Henry Kissinger, a man who recently published a doorstopper on China that somehow contrived to skate over all that unpleasantness in Tienanmen Square. Henry Kissinger, convincingly indicted as a war criminal in 2002 in Christopher Hitchens's polemic, The Trial of Henry Kissinger. Hitch still has the bit between his teeth, too: as recently as December 2010 he contributed an article to Slate on the latest ghastly revelations about the Kissinger-Nixon era. (I blogged about that at the time, but you're much better off reading Hitchens).

From the BBC website, we learn that When Henry Kissinger won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1973, the distinguished musical satirist Tom Lehrer decided that he could no longer perform. "It was at that moment that satire died," says Lehrer, "There was nothing more to say after that."

Thankfully, Lehrer didn't actually stop performing then. Unfortunately, neither did Kissinger. Power addict and friend of tyrants everywhere -- no wonder Blatter wants him on board.