Imagine the argumentation, pressure and even threats that Premier Jiří Paroubek must have used in the past week to keep Deputy Premier Martin Jahn from publicly linking his departure from politics to ČSSD's rapprochement with the Communists. Jahn denied all the media reports about the Communists and essentially said he's leaving because he isn't cut out to be a politician. How humiliating! If he had at least been able to hold up a fancy job offer, it would have been more convincing. Paroubek now wants ex-EU Commissioner Pavel Telička to fill Jahn's shoes. As a pre-1990 Communist, though, Telička would face criticism that he was helping his old party regain power. So Telička will find a banal reason to turn down an offer he would jump at under other circumstances. How ironic that in 2005, it's again the Communists who are influencing the career opportunities of young men like Jahn and Telička.