Familiar Faces.(Carlos Menem)

Carlos Menem looked like a shadow of the rabble-rouser who won the Argentine presidency in 1989. With reading glasses perched on his nose, he stumbled over the words in a prepared speech to 1,500 businessmen in a Buenos Aires hotel last week. But it's hardly surprising; the years have taken their toll. During his 10-year reign, Menem weathered repeated economic crises and corruption scandals. He even spent six months under house arrest, charged with masterminding an arms-smuggling ring--and although that case was controversially quashed, he is now under investigation for an undeclared Swiss bank account. Since losing a bruising battle that kept him from running for a third term in 1999, he has been biding his time, waiting for another chance at the only job he professes to be interested in.

Confounding his critics, Menem is not only campaigning for the presidency again but is likely to do well enough in the April 27 voting to enter the runoff phase of the election in May. The former president is undaunted by the fact that more than half the population say they would never vote for him. "Jesus Christ also attracted both love and hate," he declared with characteristic hubris after his speech. His return from the dead, say analysts, powerfully suggests that the corrupt and incompetent political class that sowed the seeds for Argentina's economic collapse--including a more than 10 percent decline in GDP last year--is not about to retreat and let a new political generation take over.

Nearly a year and a half ago, the Peronist old guard seemed finished. In December 2001, tens of thousands of Argentines took to the streets to rail against the country's politicians and mismanagement. Their anger toppled two presidents and seemed to herald a nascent political- reform movement. Their slogan was "!Que se vayan todos!" --roughly, "Get rid of the lot of them!" Current president Eduardo Duhalde responded to the public clamor by asking all major politicians and cabinet members to sign a pledge stating that they'd resign when their terms were up.

But nothing happened. Only two leaders responded to Duhalde's plea-- Duhalde himself, who is not running for re-election, and his Sports and Tourism secretary, Daniel Scioli. And even Scioli's retirement didn't last long: he's accepted the position of running mate for the leading Peronist presidential candidate, Nestor Kirchner.

Although political reform is much talked about in Argentina, little is ever achieved. Congress has passed a law on party financing--setting limits on how much parties can raise from individual donors or spend-- but there are doubts it will be enforced. Argentines ...