More often than not, they put words into Kuomintang leaders' mouths to suit their purposes.

That's exactly what they have been doing over the past couple of days.

In an interview with CommonWealth magazine on Monday, President Ma said his policy of "no unification" with China does not rule out the option of unification between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait.

Of course, it's a politically correct gobbledygook Ma had blurted out on the spur of the moment. But opposition party leaders wouldn't let him go.

They were perceiving Ma's intention to sell Taiwan out. Most people understand that Ma couldn't surrender Taiwan to China, even if he wanted.

As if that's not enough, Cheng Wen-tsan, DPP spokesman, fired a broadside at President Ma for some remarks which were not as much of a gaffe as the one about his alleged Chinese unification attempt.

On Wednesday afternoon, President Ma attended a party at the Kuomintang central office in celebration of his 70th birthday two days in advance.

Ma offered congratulations to wish Wu many more happy returns and forgot to observe the often-quoted maxim that eloquence is silver but silence is golden.

The president, probably a little carried away with Wu's acquiescence to quiet retirement, said a historical precedent may be made if the latter's lawmaker son becomes magistrate of the county of Taoyuan.

Wu Poh-hsiung served as magistrate of Taoyuan from 1973 to 1976. His father was also magistrate of the county. His son is standing for magistracy in Taoyuan.

"A historical record will be made in the Republic of China (for three generations each contributing the magistrate of the same county)," Ma told well-wishers as well as the Kuomintang chairman he is going to replace.

They look like forming a dynasty.

Cheng equated the remarks with Ma's plot to cheat the people out of their common desire to get their county upgraded to the same status as the special municipality of Taipei.

He called on Chu Lih-lun, the incumbent magistrate of Taoyuan, to protest against President Ma, who will be chairman of his party, come September 12.

Actually, Ma didn't even hint at any possible nomination of John Wu, the elder son of the Kuomintang chairman, for magistrate of Taoyuan. Nor did the president make any insinuation on Taoyuan's effort to upgrade to a special municipality.

All this is just imagination pure and simple.

Possibilities remain that DPP leaders are not really stretching their imagination to such wild extremes. Perhaps they are trying so hard to get out of the shadow of former President Chen Shui-bian that their common sense fails them.

Chen is standing trial for forgery, corruption and graft, and money laundering. But even in detention, Chen is still able to pull behind the scenes to twist the opposition party around his little finger.

With Chen haunting them, opposition parties won't be able to retain control of the six counties and cities when their mayors and magistrates are up for election in December.

It's a life-and-death struggle for the opposition party, down and almost trodden in the two major elections of last year.

The opposition party should nominate its candidates as soon as possible but has failed to present an uncontested slate, for contenders are vying increasingly keenly for their spots.

Jittery people imagine all kinds of things.