He survived the way Juvenal said Roman Republican leaders succeeded: with bread and circuses. Robert Penn Warren's fine novel, "All the King's Men," was inspired by Huey Long. Warren said he wanted to describe a man "whose power was based on the fact that he could vicariously fulfill some secret need of the people around him."

Ordinary Italians thought that somehow Berlusconi could show them how they too could succeed. But there turned out not to be that much bread for the masses, or even for Italy's corporate sector, which turned against him. There was plenty of circus. Italian television overflowed with bosomy young women, games and music, and Berlusconi-friendly news.