Sayeth the Beeb:

Before the elections, Mr Stetina had received the endorsement of former President Vaclav Havel, who said that his espousal of Green causes was "something that especially draws me to him".

So I learned something today. To know-nothing Western smartypantses, Havel is a big shot intellectual and therefore a leftist. And to a certain degree this is right -- as perhaps shown by his support of a Green candidate in Czech Senate elections. Of course, his support for the U.S. before and during the war in Iraq rubs lots of lefties the wrong way. If you were to pigeon-hole him, I think you might say Havel's one of a dying breed of old-fashioned bourgeois liberals ("liberal," that is, in the J.S. Mill sense) who doesn't mind bucking political trends and pre-conceived notions of what an ex-dissident playwright intellectual is supposed to be. I know it must be an burden being perceived as the world's moral standard-bearer, but my main complaint is that he doesn't speak out enough. We need more Havel these days.