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That Samak ate his way to his own political demise was both ironic and historic. It should easily overshadow the downfall of Al Capone, who got away with heinous crimes only to trip up on a tax-evasion banana skin. Samak loves cooking. It is the one thing that makes him resemble a kind-hearted, endearing grandpa, so it was also tragic in a way.

And the 9-0 Constitution Court vote must rub salt into his gaping wounds. Nine votes against nil to disqualify him from the prime minister's post - for the mere fact that he was paid peanuts to host a politically harmless cooking programme.

When Thaksin Shinawatra was acquitted by the Constitution Court in 2001, despite damning evidence that he and his wife hid Bt10 billion shares in servants' accounts, seven judges found him guilty, four not guilty, and four ruled that he should not even have been tried.

Samak was too proud to follow Thaksin's escape route, which was marked by tears and claims of honest mistakes. It was a straightforward fight this time, with Samak insisting he was not "employed" by the studio in question but did the show in good faith, receiving only transport costs.

In his absence, the court yesterday lectured him on the moral principles behind constitutional rules against conflicts of interest and how legal loopholes shall not be applied when dealing with the wills of a charter.

We can't help but wonder what could have been if the 2001 Constitution Court had stuck to the stern rigidity applied to Samak's case. Sondhi Limthongkul could still have been Thaksin's closest ally. Mark Hughes would have remained Blackburn Rovers' coach and Robinho would have been playing for Chelsea. And all we would have had to worry about was a doomsday scenario that is supposed to materialise any time today.

More importantly, Samak could still have been "tasting, cooking and complaining" without any risk. Bidding farewell to politics after completing his term as Bangkok governor - a post he won in fairytale fashion - should have capped the career of a controversial veteran who seemingly found redemption during his days at City Hall.

People who knew him well during and after the tragedy of October 1976 said that Samak living happily ever after upon his gubernatorial retirement would simply be unjust. Karma experts have compared Samak's role in demonising student activists in the past to him having to endure everything the People's Alliance for Democracy has thrown at him.

What goes around comes around - sometimes in a very complex and funny way. If it was formidable rightist propaganda that doomed the student movement in 1976, we still don't know what to call the force that has been tormenting Samak these past few months. You may call the PAD a "pro-democracy" force, as its name suggests, or you may want to follow Samak in branding it a movement of mere thugs.

And some of us may manage to see karma's sense of humour. Samak was set up for yesterday's humiliation by a political party of which grown-up members of the October movement form a core. Questions were asked of those people when they decided to support Samak as prime minister, and they have never given clear explanations. We can understand better now.

This could be the easiest way out, though. Being ousted by a court ruling is definitely more graceful than being pinned in a corner by those he labels "thugs" and made to resign.

But knowing Samak, it's hard to tell if he will simply call it a day and walk away. There was speculation yesterday that the People Power Party - yes, including those October 6 activists who propped him up for the Constitution Court slaughter - could vote him back into office.

If we were him, our choice would be clear, especially with another court decision looming that could send him straight to jail this time. This stubborn cook, however, has shown he can stand the heat in the kitchen, so whether he will choose that provocative scenario is anybody's guess. After all, he's a wounded tiger, and intriguing karma is probably not finished with him yet.