Sour Krauts

Votopsies are coming after dissatisfied German voters turned out Gerhard Schroeder's Social Democrats in the western states of Hesse and Lower Saxony Sunday. CNN cites anger at Schroeder's stance on Iraq for the Social Democrats' lousy 29.1 percent showing in Hesse and 33.4 in Lower Saxony—to the conservative Christian Democrats' 43.8 percent and 43.3 percent. Deutsche Welle chalks up the loss—the Social Democrats' worst showing since World War II—to disgruntlement over the economy. Ha'aretz makes it a diagnostic ha'at-trick, describing the loss as a sign that Germany is shifting to the right and away from Schroeder's widely unpopular party.