scandal?

You'd be amazed at what passes for a scandal in Germany. And it has nothing to do with any current politicians.

Everybody knew that Schröder would pursue a lucrative private sector opportunity after losing the Chancellorship. That's where his connections and past lay. There was even a lot of speculation that he called the election when he did because he was sick of being Chancellor and would prefer to work for a big company. Now he has a job, with the Baltic Sea Pipeline Project, which just happened to be a project he advocated as the Chancellor. Hmm.

The other question being raised is that apparently Putin helped ol' boy Gerd get the gig. Schröder is very popular in Russia thanks to his strong anti-Iraq War stance and other things, and he's also popular with the Russian higher-ups thanks to the pipeline and such. People aren't happy that Schröder might have been cuddling up to authoritarians in order to further his post-government career options.

This seems like it might be unethical, but it's strange to me that it's such a big deal. To me, taking the job doesn't make the deal unethical. If the pipeline was a boondoggle (over which there has no debate) this would be real scandal and cause for concern. After all, that's exactly what Duke Cunningham did. But if the merits of the pipeline are sound, it seems like wasting a lot of hot air on a politician who's already out of office is a bit silly. There's no indication that malfeasance goes beyond Gerd, and the outrage seems to be directed at him personally. Find something real to bitch about. Like... oh... I don't know.... say the economy.