Operation Pissing off Allies Still on Track For what seems like the the fifth or sixth time in the last several months, a conservative Bush Administration aligned party has been thrashed at the polls. It's amazing how beloved he is...everybody in the world must be wrong except Rush Limbaugh and his ilk right? This time in the pivotal nation of South Korea. In their sharpest shift to the political left in four decades, South Korean voters on Thursday appeared to hand an overwhelming victory in legislative elections to the Uri Party, whose leadership advocates rapprochement with North Korea and greater independence from Seoul's traditional ally, the United States. ... According to South Korean media projections based on ballot counting, the Uri Party was poised to more than triple its representation in the 299-seat National Assembly to at least 150 seats, taking majority control away from the establishment-dominated Grand National Party, which won an estimated 103 seats. It would mark South Korea's first freely elected, liberal-dominated legislature since the 1961 coup that brought this nation's long time military dictator, Park Chung Hee, to power. ... Today's vote marked the Grand National Party's worst legislative defeat. The party is now headed by Park Geun Hye, 52, daughter of Park Chung Hee who built the tight relationship between Washington and Seoul following the Korean War. U.S. relations with Seoul -- considered a vital ally of Washington -- have already become somewhat strained since Roh took office last year, with Roh's government pressing the Bush administration to adopt a more flexible approach on North Korea's nuclear weapons programs. Vice President Cheney arrived in Seoul today on the last stop of his Asian tour. Man, Cheney is just a goddamned good luck charm for the Bush Administration isn't he?