Phoney, vacuous and mendacious
Mirek Topolánek stormed out of one of the meetings at the EU summit last week, according to a front-page story on Sat. in MF Dnes. Topolánek denied it, and that was that. It was a minor issue, but in a more serious matter, Ekonom quoted Topolánek last week as saying that Slovak PM Robert Fico boasted to him about the central-parity rate for the Slovak crown before it was made public. Topolánek claimed later that his direct quote was a misunderstanding, and that was that. Neither story had much shelf life in the CR, because Topolánek issued flat denials. In both instances, though, reports in the foreign press (the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung in the first case, and SME in the second) give reason to believe that Topolánek wasn't telling the truth. Sure, everybody in politics lies, to paraphrase film mogul David Geffen, but the ease with which Topolánek has learned to do it is troubling.
Glossary of difficult words
phoney (or phony) and vacuous - the way Klaus once referred to Topolánek (falešný a prázdný); phoney means fake or not genuine; vacuous means empty or unintelligent;mendacious - not telling the truth, lying;
that was that - nothing more was said of it;
to boast - to brag, to speak with excessive pride about something;
shelf life - the length of time for which an item remains usable, fit for consumption, or saleable;
mogul - an important or powerful person, esp. in the film or media industries;
David Geffen - he made this comment about Bill and Hillary Clinton.