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One of our stories last week prompted a Council of State member, J.H. Owusu Acheampong, and his NDC associates of the privileged club of counselors to attempt a defence. It was a story which scored a direct hit, exposing the predicament of NDC leaders as they brood over how to pacify the founder of their political grouping in the aftermath of the grueling and abrasive FONKAR/GAMES drama. The �Rawlings Snubs NDC Gurus� story was about a stealthy march to the Ridge residence of the former President by the party apparatchiks, tails between their hind legs like some mangy mongrels. The brains behind the march turned to discredit the story. There was indeed a call on the former president and a discussion about how to end the FONKAR/GAMES drama as reported by the Daily Guide and as evidenced by the disclosure of the Council of State member. Whatever the worth of the story, it compelled those who undertook the long journey to the Ridge residence of the Rawlingses to tell Ghanaians about their mission, against the backdrop of outright apathy when the former first couple was inundated with all manner of contemptuous remarks by Castle-appointed hounds. It was a mission which should have come, perhaps, soon after the Sunyani congress of the party; and not after the many insulting remarks spewed by the likes of Ablakwa Okudzeto and Asiedu Nketiah. The trip, while failing to achieve its objective of pacifying a justifiably sulking Jerry John Rawlings, still licking his Asiedu-Nketiah-inflicted wounds, also exposed the desperation of the leadership of the NDC. After all the boastful remarks, it is interesting to observe the catlike movement towards the Rawlingses to as it were, seek reconciliation with a man they had told to go to hell, virtually. The chickens have finally come home to roast, exposing the challenges of NDC politics. Recalling scenes from the Sunyani congress of the party a few months ago puts the unfolding pacification mission in a better perspective. At the time Mr. Owusu Acheampong was responding to the Daily Guide report, he claimed he was yet to read the story about their futile mission. It was instructive however to note that he put up a brave countenance of accomplishment even as we await a statement from the Office of the former President, announcing an interment of the hatchet and the readiness of the Rawlingses to join the Mills campaign train. A tall order eh? When the gates were opened so they could take leave of the residence whose reconstruction Baba Jamal said was not a priority, the Council of State members could not afford smiles of accomplishment, as they were crestfallen. When the President returns, it would be interesting to know the contents of the report they would be submitting to him. Now that the Rawlingses are laughing last at the inception of such manouvres to get them to forgive and forget all the ordeals they suffered at the hands of General Mosquito and others, the dictum that he who laughs last laughs best could not have been more applicable.