Voters and the Democrats have put another hitch in the strut of the ruling Pheu Thai Party. The loss of the Don Muang by-election on Sunday is the party's second setback in a row in high-profile polls in the Bangkok area.
Following the loss in the Bangkok governor race, the Don Muang loss has cut Pheu Thai's bragging rights decidedly short. There is noticeably less confidence in the idea of coasting in for another general election in 2015 after filling a full term at the top.
The two Bangkok-region elections hardly challenge Pheu Thai's overall fortunes. Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra is politically secure, with a solid and loyal majority in the Lower House.
And of course the Democrats have been successful in and near their home base of Bangkok. After the Democrats won a surprisingly easy victory in the governor's race, Pheu Thai arranged and won a by-election in Chiang Mai even more easily _ and with Thaksin Shinawatra's other sister Yaowapa as candidate. So Pheu Thai is hardly wilting.
Neither, however, is it getting stronger. Don Muang was a constituency that had eluded the Democrats for nearly 40 years, and until this week was thought to be safe for Pheu Thai and red shirts. Voters said otherwise.
Pheu Thai sent in its top-shelf personalities to campaign, including Prime Minister Yingluck, Bangkok political shark Khunying Sudarat Keyuraphan and show-business friends of their candidate Yuranunt Pamornmontri. They could not hold their own against party leader Abhisit Vejjajiva, finance critic Korn Chatikavanij and pro-Democrat stars.
Voters were split, to be sure, but Tankhun Jitt-itsara prevailed over Mr Yuranunt.
In the wake of Sunday's setback, Ms Yingluck tried to stand aside from the political fray. Her image minder and secretary-general, Suranand Vejjajiva, said all reaction should come from the Pheu Thai Party. That is convenient. It is also a serious political mistake.
Every indication is that she and her government were the major reason why voters switched from Pheu Thai to the Democrats in the two years since she led the party to victory in a national election.
Having campaigned heavily for her party's candidates, even Ms Yingluck's Teflon armour cannot deflect the partial responsibility she bears in parliament for the loss of Bangkok City Hall and the Don Muang seat.
But one hopes that even as she tries to dodge public responsibility, she considers carefully how and why Pheu Thai took these two crucial losses.
A weekend Abac Poll which coincided with the Don Muang voting indicated massive dissatisfaction in Bangkok with the rice-purchase scheme and its secrecy.
Ms Yingluck's inability to present credible figures on the losses of the scheme have scorched her, the government and Pheu Thai alike. The growing tendency towards Thaksin tactics of avoiding accountability is arguably the biggest reason why enough voters have switched to defeat Pheu Thai twice in a row in the Bangkok region. Ms Yingluck occasionally talks the talk about democracy, as in her Mongolia speech. But she is less adept when the time comes to walk the walk.
Accountability is the prime test of democracy. Even Iran can hold a free election. The test of a democratic government comes after the vote. The prime minister's refusal to discuss the defeat at Don Muang is a symptom of a lack of accountability that the rice-purchase secrecy has come to define.