Mori remarks befuddle LDP / Lawmakers worry over future of.

(From The Yomiuri Shimbun/Daily Yomiuri)

Mori remarks befuddle LDP / Lawmakers worry over future of party, postal reform bills

Yomiuri

Former Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori's recent threat to quit as the chair of his Liberal Democratic Party faction if Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi dissolves the House of Representatives was a desperate attempt to avert such a situation.

In response to remarks by Koizumi that he would dissolve the lower house if his postal reform bills did not pass a plenary session of the House of Councillors next week, Mori, who has maintained close relations as a mentor for Koizumi, said Tuesday and Wednesday that he would step down as chairman of his LDP faction.

The remarks also have caused a stir within the party, as many LDP lawmakers believe the remarks will affect the upper house members' decision on the bills.

"If the prime minister dissolved the lower house, I would no longer be able to unite my faction," Mori was quoted as saying when he met with LDP Acting Secretary General Shinzo Abe at his office in Tokyo on Wednesday.

Abe told the former …