So, the Green Party, so long promoting itself as an alternative to the two-party system, has a new head honcho. According to di-ve.com, Prof Cassola promised as one of his first committments to open talks with the two main parties over the nomination of the new President of Malta. According to timesofmalta.com, he actually said that all parties should be consulted on the choice of President of the Republic. The di-ve.com version, if correct, is evidence that there still remain traces of hubris clinging to the AD banner. Where does a political party that has never had a member elected to the House get off, saying it's going to open talks with the two main parties, for heaven's sake? Why should the two main parties give them the time of day, pray?

Not that the Times' version does them many more favours, frankly: did Prof. Cassola really mean "all parties" when he said all parties should be consulted? Does he really think that AD, which has credentials, if only to a limited degree after their performances recently, should be put in the same frame as Josie Muscat's horrendous AN and Emy Bezzina's loopy Alpha[male] mob, to mention but a couple of the more ridiculous outfits that have raised their heads above the parapet?

While on the subject of Muscat, Josie of that ilk (we'll get to the other lad later) it seems he's been prevailed on to stay at the helm of the Azzjoni Nazzjonali, lovingly known as AzzNazz.. Not for him a graceful exit stage right, which at least Anglu Xuereb had the sense to perform - nope, Josie Muscat seems to be in love enough with the sound of his own voice to linger on, a bit like a bad smell.

As one of his first public utterances, Muscat congratulated the Irish on scuppering the Lisbon Treaty, a position which I suspect Dr KMB will be taking in a couple of days. What a sad reflection on the AN, that its leader should be so smug about something with which he had absolutely nothing to do.

With something approaching supreme arrogance, he exults that the Irish people have rejected something that the Maltese Parliament had acquiesced to in a mere sitting, with half the members, according to Muscat, not knowing what they were voting about.

Leaving aside the impertinence of his assumption that the Honourable Members are more in the dark about things than your average Paddy-at-large, isn't it ironic that someone who was told in no uncertain terms by the electorate that he and his party are absolute nonentities should set such stock by the electorate? And so on to the other Muscat, the subject of my punning title for this week. It echoes the cat-call that I seem to remember used to be directed at blokes out for a run, generally Brit squaddies, back in the day before jogging became an obsession of the chattering classes. The pun, god-awful as it is, comes from the fact that I actually watched all of Xarabank, though on Sunday morning, having much better things to do with my time on Friday evening than watching Azzopardi fumbling with his papers.

Joseph Muscat came across as a likeable enough bloke, capable of a mild wise-crack and an apposite ad lib, which is a great improvement on his predecessor.

In the PR-stakes, it's not a great feat to be an improvement on Alfred Sant, to be fair. Like most modern politicians, Muscat has embraced the sound bite and the photo-op with gusto to spare. In itself, this is not necessarily a bad thing or a good thing and, given that perception is a good part of the game, he's going to give the Nationalists a good run for their money. He's actually quite slick, though he would be well advised to lose the smirk that tends to creep up on him when he's not watching. He can put on a serious look, too: he did just that when he was told the news about who his two side-kicks were going to be. I'm not saying the smile was wiped off his face, but he did look less ebullient than a couple of seconds previously.

As a smooth operator of the sound-bite mechanism, Muscat has quite a knack at responding to questions by giving the answer he wants to give and never mind the question. Again, this is not a sin of which he is the only one guilty and he's a lot better at it than quite a few, but he has to watch himself, because the playing field is different again from when Tony Blair started this trend.

Nowadays, scurrilous swine like yours truly are lurking in the undergrowth, ready to pounce and poke holes in the image our dearly beloved politicians build for themselves. It was ever thus, of course, but the immediacy of reaction made possible by the 'Net has changed the dynamic substantially, as we saw when the spinners got their spin spun right back at them during the campaign. Muscat has to work on his delivery a tad, though, because you can tell when he's "sound-biting": the words speed up just a little. I suppose it's an improvement on certain other politicians, who you can tell are doing it because their lips move.

Muscat will have to be a bit careful, too, about the way he puts over his personal opinion. It's a refreshing change for a politician actually to have a personal opinion, even if it does get him slightly knotted up as happened when he was responding to the Christian fundamentalist and the Gay Rights fundamentalist who were pressing him on divorce and gay marriage.

Just as an aside, if we're going to start getting all het up about same-sex marriage (as in, having all manner of spasms because most interpretations of the Christian message prohibit it) someone had better amend the law, because from what I'm told, said law doesn't actually lay down that marriage has to be between men and women. As far as I'm concerned, the Church should stay out of this and let the State regulate partnership rights (i.e. marriage and the dissolution thereof) between people who want to regulate them civily, which is more than Muscat said, though I can't blame him for not wanting to risk the wrath of the God Botherers.

So there you have it, Muscat is enjoying a honeymoon and coming over as a bit of fresh air. It won't last, of course, and it will soon be business as usual, with me annoying the little elves. After all, youth and enthusiasm are not proton-shields against the slings and arrows of outrageous columnists for long, and this particular enthusiastic youth has quite a bit going for him in the target area, to say nothing of the fertile ground that surrounds him now that the delegates have lumbered him with the Farrugia/Abela bicycle made for two.