Eliane says Dirceu may "have the last laugh"

247 - In her column this Thursday, journalist Eliane Cantanhêde laments the acceptance of the appeals. She predicts a victory for the Workers' Party and says that "those who don't like it will only have one option: to cry over spilled milk." Below:

He who laughs last...

BRASILIA - By accepting the appeals for clarification, the Supreme Federal Court is essentially setting a new trial date for the Mensalão scandal and is likely to backtrack on one of the fundamental points of the first phase: the updating of the concept of a criminal organization.

While criminal gangs were previously almost caricatured—bands of common, armed criminals who robbed banks and things like that—the Mensalão trial broadened the concept to include powerful individuals, both inside and outside governments, who act together against the public interest.

According to rapporteur Joaquim Barbosa, even in the first phase, José Dirceu and a dozen other defendants, "freely and consciously, associated themselves in a stable and organized manner, with a division of tasks, for the purpose of committing crimes against public administration and against the national system, in addition to money laundering."

Joaquim won, and then-reviewer Ricardo Lewandowski lost. But the game is suspended, and this could become a thing of the past, with Joaquim losing and Lewandowski winning.

One fact stands out in this arena. If the appeals are accepted and, later, the merits of those appeals are considered, the trial will end with the advertising and financial groups in jail, led by Marcos Valério and Kátia Rabello, and with the political group in ostentatious celebration, still led by José Dirceu.

For the "experts," the weight of the law. For the "politicians," the lightness of who-knows-what.

Sentenced to more than 10 years, Dirceu was practically in a closed prison regime. With Celso de Mello's tie-breaking vote yesterday, he's practically out the door. If the concept of criminal gang activity is revised, he'll be right out, happily in a semi-open regime.

And so humanity, Brazil, politics, the Supreme Court, and the Mensalão trial march on, confirming an old popular saying: he who laughs last laughs best. This may apply to Dirceu, Delúbio Soares, João Paulo Cunha. And to Lewandowski.

Those who don't like it will only have one option: to cry over spilled milk.