How he hid it

Miroslav Kalousek resigned yesterday as head of Parliament's budget committee but insists that his housing scandal isn't like Stanislav Gross's. Kalousek told the BBC that his wife's Kč 6.5m apartment was acquired in a "totally clean, transparent, unambiguous operation." It's true that Kalousek seemed to have the operation well planned, with alibis, IOUs and rental agreements all in place, unlike Gross, who clearly hadn't thought out anything in advance and got into trouble when his story changed so often. Why, then, is Kalousek the one resigning? No matter how well his income was sheltered, the whole plan depended on his brother-in-law, the frontman who died much sooner than anyone could have logically expected. If he were alive today, there'd be no scandal. As Robert Burns might have said, the best-laid schemes of rats and men often go awry.