Hello, I Must Be Going

Just two weeks after his spectacular transformation from obscure buffoon to Russia's most notorious politician, Vladimir Zhirinovsky decided to take a little vacation. His idea of a good time: a riotous road trip through Central Europe, hobnobbing with a German right-wing firebrand, skiing in the company of an Austrian Waffen-SS veteran and, in virtually every place on his itinerary, behaving in ways that tend to get ordinary people thrown out of bars. But in Zhirinovsky's case, he was given the bum's rush from entire countries. Back in Russia at week's end, the nationalist demagogue was able to regale friends with how...