Berlusconi, in the footsteps of Capone?

It is difficult to take seriously someone who looks like a Computer Generated Image of himself.(Does anybody remember Max Headroom?)

Silvio Berlusconi, has managed to hang on to power by methods that would impress Machiavelli. Berlusconi could teach his friend Vladimir Putin a thing or two if it not for Putin having the benefit of the FSB to deal with electoral anomalies and opponents who have "become a nuisance". Putin has the FSB and allegedly, Berlusconi has the Mafia and several major media platforms. Berlusconi also has the problem of the Italian legislature, but he has cleverly dodged them, making sure, among other things, that any prosecution would be subject to a statute of limitations. The problem is, none of this has been able to stick. There have been countless trials and investigations that have ultimately gone nowhere. His tentacles have even reached the highest levels in the British political class.

So it will be a supreme irony if the means of Berlusconi's downfall is the result of his current prosecution; a drab, tawdry trouser area trial.

Al Capone's stock with anybody that liked that sort of thing went down somewhat on St Valentine's day, 1929. It focused a lot of attention on his affairs and Capone had appeared to have overstepped the mark from being just bad to being bad and careless. Too many bodies, too many public officials making embarrassed apologies for the crimewave.

Well, they got Al Capone for tax evasion and he went to jail. On his release, complications connected with syphilis caused his health to decline seriously and he died of a heart attack. At the time of his death his physician concluded that Capone had a mental age of 12.

Will there be a tipping point? Will there be a point at which too many loose ends and one too many double-crossed associates decide that time is up? Who can tell, but it takes very little, in the end, to bring down the all powerful because they have to be lucky all the time and the opposition only have to be lucky once.

UPDATE: Silvio Berlusconi is to face three women judges in the latest round of prosecutions.