"We in Latin America are not trying to look for a leader," Mr. da
Silva said. "We don't need a leader. What we need to do is build

political harmony because South America and Latin America need to learn

the lesson of the 20th century. We had the opportunity to grow, we had

the opportunity to develop ourselves, and we lost that opportunity. So

we still continue to be poor countries.

"What I want is to govern my country well."

Glad to hear that. One way to govern your country well is to be judicious in your appointments and not stick by your friends blindly, so I'm disappointed with this statement about Jose Dirceu:

"I don't believe that there is any evidence that Mr. Dirceu committed
the crime that he is being charged with," the president said. "He will

be judged."

Of course he will be judged, but I wish he had expressed even the slightest disappointment with Dirceu that things had gotten to this point. I also chafe at this comment:

He refused to say if anyone in particular had betrayed him. "There are
hundreds of employees around me that I don't have any idea what they

are doing," Mr. da Silva said.

While I certainly don't expect him to be familiar with what every single employee is doing, his tone is dismissive. He needed to make a stronger statement about allegations of corruption stemming from this scandal. Generally speaking, I like Lula. I think that history will be very fair to him, as it should be.

But I think his stand against corruption ought to be stronger - at least where it relates to Dirceu and the scandal that forced him out.