LAST APRIL I was going to write a story about German defense minister Rudolf Scharping after hearing him speak at the New Atlantic Initiative here in Washington. Scharping, a former chairman of the SPD (the German Socialist party), talked about the war against terrorism, cooperation between the United States and Germany, and then strayed from his prepared remarks to talk about how he was personally affected by September 11. It was a nice touch.

But mentioning my story idea to a friend, he replied, “Don’t waste your time. He’ll be out of there before you know it.” Sure enough, last week, Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder made the announcement that, “In my opinion, the necessary basis for working together no longer exists.” And just like that, Rudolf Scharping was fired and replaced by SPD party whip Peter Struck.