Riding on the promises of clean and honest governance, Bush-ette did make her move and succeeded. But it was all a lie, the part about cleaning up the government, for Bush-ette was a lot worse than her predecessor.

And, so it happened in the republican empire of now President Bush-ette, almost as she had just assumed office, did a foreign hydro and wind power company knock down the deal to rehabilitate one of the republican power plants for the amazing price of 470 million clams. The power grab was never about the people’s welfare but how to maximize the spoils of governance.

Being deeply in political debt, Bush-ette instructed one of her loyal henchman, Colonel Reyber, to accompany the Orchid Grower, her newly-appointed Injustice Secretary, on an overseas trip. Reyber told all and sundry that it was just a vacation but he carried out the hidden purpose: To collect the payola from the foreign company in exchange for the 470-million clam energy contract. It was only fitting that the Orchid Grower received the payola since he was the one who signed the legal opinion legitimizing the power contract.

Reyber being a loyal henchman would not ordinarily tell anyone of the true purpose of his false vacation but he just could not keep his tongue in check whenever he ascended into a drunken state. And, that he did before his peers who to this day keep laughing at the republican hypocrisy of President Bush-ette.

When Reyber reported back to President Bush-ette, he was asked if he got anything for his trouble. "Yes, Ma’am," Reyber said, "the Orchid Grower gave me 5,000 clams." "Just 5,000 clams?" was the surprised remark of President Bush-ette. "Ang damot naman!"

But that was not the worst of it. Apparently, the Orchid Grower tried to pull a fast one on one of the power brokers behind the deal, the Illegal Campaign Contributor (ICC). "Share the wealth," said the Orchard Grower said to the ICC. ‘Since kumita ka, pakitain mo rin ako," This did not sit well with ICC who immediately cried "foul" and accused the Orchid Grower of trying to suck the money he had siphoned off from somewhere else.

Since the wheels of justice grind slowly in the republican empire, Ombudsnot Maid Mercy dragged her high heels in resolving the case and when she did, it was just a case for mere extortion. The fact that the two million clams had definitely tainted a 470-million clam deal bothered her not. She would not file a case for plunder against the Orchid Grower, who happened to be her ex-boss at the republican Ministry of Injustice. Maid Mercy also took comfort in the fact that she could get away with not understanding the difference between plunder and extortion being a bar flunker. Besides, how could she upset the status quo that favored President Bush-ette in the first place. It was President Bush-ette who made her Ombudsnot and she was even a law school classmate of her husband, the Big Buddha.

The people of republican empire are not too happy with the turn of events in their land. For them, there is no happy ending in this modern fairy tale. To get the happy ending in all fairy tales, they have to take matters into their own hands. Someday and somehow.

Nota bene: Fables, fairy tales and nursery rhymes always have a historical truth in themselves. "Humpty Dumpty", for example, was actually a powerful cannon during the English Civil War atop the St. Mary’s at the Wall Church in Colchester. The real Lady Godiva actually rode naked through Coventry on a dare made by her husband, Leofrric the Earl of Mercia. He would only stop taxing his subjects to death if she did what he asked. As we all know, the townspeople of Coventry stayed indoors and shut their windows tight to spare the good lady of any indignity. All of them, except for one Peeping Tom.