Today's Hoot
Peter Finn in the Washington Post relates that Hit Song Taxes German's Patience: Parody Mocks Schroeder on Economy .

He may not be No. 1 at the White House, what with the Iraq thing and all, but Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder is burning up the German charts.

A spoof of Schroeder supposedly singing a doctored version of the hugely successful "The Ketchup Song" has raced to the top of Germany's music charts. But the chancellor, who has placed in the Top 10 before, is not toasting the hit. "It is a fair assumption that Schroeder is not pleased with this song," a government spokesman said when asked to comment on a song that debuted at No. 1 this week.

"Der Steuersong" ("The Tax Song") mocks the chancellor as a relentless, amoral, conniving taxer. "I am as beloved as athlete's foot, and I want the best from you, your money!" sings Elmar Brandt, Germany's leading impersonator of Schroeder's sometimes folksy speech. "Dog tax, tobacco tax, car and environmental tax," goes the song, which rhymes in German. "Did you really believe there wouldn't be more?"

The accompanying video is brutal: A puppet of a cigar-smoking Schroeder depicts the leader stealing from a Red Cross collection tin, taking medicine from the sick and stashing money in a safe before the safe falls on him.

...

Schroeder has remained silent about the new song, but news reports here suggest he may sue Brandt. That seems unlikely, however, given the derision that greeted his decision to sue a news agency that reported he dyed his hair.

"Can the chancellor be mocked like this?" asked the indignant tabloid Bild in an editorial. "Does the chancellor puppet really have to end up under a safe at the end of the video?"

"There is nothing wrong with the video at all," TV personality Gaby Koester told Bild. "Nothing wrong happens to the safe."

The BBC has the lyrics. The Chorus goes:

I raise your taxes. A cast vote is a vote cast, you can't fire me anymore. That's the cool thing about democracy.

I dig deeply in your pockets. Every single one of you has got some dough tucked away. And I'll get it, I'll find it - doesn't matter where it is.

I'll strip you bare, you losers. You'll be astounded, I'll manage to surprise you. There is no tax that I can't come up with.