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Newin Chidchob and Somsak Thepsutin, the two pillars of Bhum Jai Thai Party, probably think PM Abhisit's Democrat Party needs them more than they need the Democrats.

That, of course, is only half the story.

The other half of the story is what the two veteran politicians from the mould of "old politics" don't get. It's not whether the Democrats will do their projects. It is whether the public would let the Democrats and their coalition partners get away with squandering taxpayers' money with impunity.

Somsak said his party had been "badly mauled" by their Democrat partners who had "waylaid" their projects to tear them to pieces. "That's not fair," he declared, before adding that the Abhisit government had "nothing to show after five months in office. What's worse, he said, there doesn't seem to be a proper strategy to resolve the country's problems."

If you had just landed on this planet from Mars, you might be excused for thinking that Somsak was a strident critic from the opposition party. But if you have been here long enough, you could easily conclude that it's nothing more than politicians' gambit to make enough noise to get their pet projects approved.

No, they aren't really worried about the Abhisit government having anything substantial to show after five months.

If that was a real concern of a coalition partner, they would have screamed hell much earlier - and the real worry wouldn't be about those mega-projects.

What Somsak and Newin were grumbling loudly about was why their proposed schemes were being put under such close and critical scrutiny? The implication was that proposals from Democrat Cabinet members weren't as critically examined.

PM Abhisit, while not directly responding to Somsak's public onslaught, did insist that to him, every proposed scheme submitted to the Cabinet must be judged on its own merit - and he didn't care if it carried the stamp of the Democrat Party or its coalition partners.

That apparently wouldn't go down well with Somsak who had decided to end the "honeymoon" with the Democrats within the coalition government.

But that doesn't mean his public blitz against the premier would tilt public opinion to his side. The inevitable question is:

What's the fuss all about? If those projects were really serving public interests as the Bhum Jai Thai Party's core leaders claimed, then they should have welcomed the public's riveted attention.

If Bhum Jai Thai was really working on behalf of the poor and deprived, they should also be closely monitoring the Democrat Cabinet members to make sure that there is real, concrete contribution to the country.

If there were no ulterior motives or hidden agenda, why then would the Bhum Jai Thai's leadership get so upset about the Cabinet's decision to refer the controversial issue to a "neutral party" for a transparent and professional assessment?

Premier Abhisit realises that he can't be seen to be knuckling under to the Newin faction's every demand or else he might lose whatever credibility he had built up throughout his long political climb to the top. But then, he also knows that things could reach a breaking point if he continues to adhere to his principle of being responsive to public scrutiny on suspicious projects.

There is a limit to political accommodation of your coalition partners if you want to remain faithful to your pledge to play it by the rules of the game. And if you listened carefully enough, Abhisit seems ready for a showdown, if that critical line of tolerance is crossed.

"I will try to explain to our coalition partners that I consider every project on its merits, without regard to whether it's proposed by a coalition partner or the Democrats…"

And if push comes to shove?

"Then, I will have to face reality," the premier said.

In other words, the countdown to the disintegration of the current coalition line-up could come sooner than you might have thought.