The Anticipated Book

This is one of those grand German political stories that makes you kinda wonder and scratch your head.

Helmet Kohl was the Chancellor of Germany for sixteen years (1982-1998).  For most of the sixteen years.....he was the revered guy who was kinda admired by the majority of Germans.  Toward the end, it was discovered that Kohl had taken some campaign contributions....held them in a foreign account....and used them for smaller election races in Germany to benefit his lesser party members (CDU).

After leaving the office in 1998 (losing out to Schroeder).....Kohl was an outsider to his party.  He was often an honored guest at functions, but he wasn't invited to campaign or speak for the party.  It was never clear if he wanted it that way, or if the party simply shoved him aside.

At some point around 2001, Kohl started to have discussions with a writer.....hour after hour of conversation over what he felt about individuals and events.  What they generally say is that he spoke for about six-hundred hours over a two-year period.

The writer finally sat down and squeezed this all into a book, which is to be published this week....unless the German court system stops it.

What German journalists tend to say is that Kohl and his second wife generally woke up and demanded the return of the audio tapes covering the six-hundred hours.  The writer apparently stalled them long enough to have them transcribed.....then handed them over.  So, he used the material for the book.

All of this is set to unfold on Wednesday at the Frankfurt Book Fair, as the book is handed out.  Kohl is hoping for a challenge to be accepted and the book distribution to be ended.

Negative commentary from Kohl?  Well...yeah.  He has an awful lot of negative talk to hand out....from Merkel on down.  Members of his own political party get dumped on as well.

Kinda leaving a tainted look over Kohl in the years to come?  I would guess that this book takes what positives came out of the Kohl era, and leaves you with question marks.  The stupid thing here is that someone just allowed Kohl on his own judgement to just keep talking....up to six-hundred hours worth....and he probably offered every single bit of commentary and criticism possible.  Most politicians have a tendency to talk over just about anything, and they need to have people in the background to give a signal to cut things short, and not do something really dumb.  Kohl never got that signal.