Political drama in Brasilia

Since I got back to Brazil on Tuesday, there has been a political whirlwind in the nation's capital. Here's a summary:

On Tuesday, Lina Vieira — the ousted head of the Brazilian tax agency — testified before a Senate committee that in December she had met with President Lula's chief of staff and hand-picked successor, Dilma Rousseff. In that meeting, she said, Rousseff had asked her to "expedite" investigations into businesses owned by Lula ally and now-embattled Senate President Jose Sarney. Vieira said she did not feel pressured to end the investigations, but many see it differently. On Monday, Lula himself had challenged her to produce the agenda that showed the meeting with Rousseff, which she could not do. But today's O Globo shows that the official agenda of Rousseff herself was inaccurate for the days in late December when Vieira believes the meeting to have taken place.

Then yesterday, the Senate Ethics Committee voted not to proceed with any of the ethics accusations against Sarney, seeming to grant him victory in a battle waged over months in the press and the populace, and most recently on the Senate floor.  The vote was credited to Lula's pressure on his own party's three senators on the committee to support Sarney — who is a member of the allied PMDB. The Senators' support for Sarney was feeble, as evidenced by their "barely inaudible" roll call votes, according to press reports. Sarney now looks cleared to keep his role as Senate president, at least for now, to the surprise of many political prognosticators who thought he was doomed.  But there are still other investigations pending.

Also yesterday, Marina Silva, a senator from the Amazonian state of Acre who had been Lula's environment minister for five years announced she was leaving the Workers Party. Unofficially, Silva has agreed to join the Green Party and most likely serve as their presidential candidate in the 2010 elections — possibly even with Brazilian music legend and former Lula cabinet member Gilberto Gil as running mate. It was an additional blow to the Workers Party on a day when they weren't looking so good to begin with.

Then today, Senator Aloizio Mercadante, announced (via Twitter) he would give up his post as Workers Party leader in the senate. He later tweeted that Lula had requested a meeting with him and that he would not make the official announcement until after the meeting, but Mercadante has been fed up with the proceedings in the ethics committee and in his own party's protection of Sarney.

What could happen tomorrow in the Senate? Who knows. But something tells me it won't be any actual lawmaking.

http://www.globalpost.com/notebook/brazil/090820/senate-developments-jose-sarney