Cracker: RIght On.
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Paul Williams, in reply to
It would also be perfectly appropriate to simply ask Brash what contact he’s had with the party’s key funders, and which ones backed him. Even if he didn’t answer, there’s nothing wrong with asking about something that’s being alluded to by both friend and foe.
Actually, I think there's bundle of questions about the pressures and inducements circulating around this extraordinary development. There may be a precedent in NZ, I'm not familiar with it, but the only comparable situation that I'm aware of occurred in Qld recently and has been referred to the State's corruption commission on the basis that it may have included offers of post parliamentary offices.
To me, Brash remains the bloke who dissembled on the EBs and lectured Clark about marriage while conducting extra-marital affairs. I am deeply mistrusting.
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Kumara Republic, in reply to
but the only comparable situation that I'm aware of occurred in Qld recently and has been referred to the State's corruption commission on the basis that it may have included offers of post parliamentary offices.
How recent? The Sir Joh era?
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Paul Williams, in reply to
No, a little more recent, 7 April this year in fact.
Short version: Brisbane's Lord Mayor, Campbell Newman, (equivalent to Len Brown) announced he'd simultaneous contest a parliamentary seat and also the leadership of the Liberal/National parliamentary coalition. There's a suggestion (leak) that the current leader of the Liberal/National Coalition was encouraged to stand aside for Newman with various inducements of extra-parliamentary offices. Given Qld's history of corruption, this is a matter that's been referred to the Qld Crime and Misconduct Commission.
Here's a useful link to the ABC story around the time.
I confess I've not followed the story since.
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recordari, in reply to
To me, Brash remains the bloke who dissembled on the EBs and lectured Clark about marriage while conducting extra-marital affairs. I am deeply mistrusting.
This seems apposite.
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Craig Ranapia, in reply to
To me, Brash remains the bloke who dissembled on the EBs and lectured Clark about marriage while conducting extra-marital affairs. I am deeply mistrusting.
Um, Paul -- do we really need to go there? It's weird (and blackly comic) enough that we have a party whose presumptive leader isn't even a member yet. (And as I understand ACT's constitution, the executive Board can tell Brash and Hide to bog off. Which would raise a whole other freak flag.)
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Sacha, in reply to
There's even been a reference from the Brash camp to the Epsom polls being bankrolled by a "longstanding admirer of Brash". Well, who?
Quite.
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Sacha, in reply to
we have a party whose presumptive leader isn't even a member yet
Brash joined up yesterday morning before the media conference. That it was merely a matter of 'procedure' before then shows what really counts and where power lies in that shady cesspit that has lain beneath both National and Act for years.
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I mean, I think there is a place for Maori culture but why is it that we always use a semi-naked male, sometimes quite pale-skinned Maori, leaping around in, you know, mock battle?
That was the Don back invoking the blood quotient on 4 Sept, 2005. Or perhaps he was just implying that a semi-naked female would be preferable.
I wonder what he makes of Obama?
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Craig Ranapia, in reply to
That it was merely a matter of ‘procedure’ before then shows what really counts and where power lies in that shady cesspit that has lain beneath both National and Act for years.
Oh, for God's sake... Seriously. Perhaps I've been living in some Fringe-like alternate universe, but Hide's performance -- and ACT's dismal polling and election results -- have been criticised for years. Not helped by the perk-buster being outed as a trougher. And ACT being what it is, nobody's been particularly shy about saying so.
I know this might come as a dreadful shock, but I'm not actually surprised that your "shadowy backers" (funny how right-wing parties have that, while the left have sector groups and donors) noticed that members were not happy. I'd love to know who commissioned this "poll", but does the discussion have to take on the tone of one of Donald Trump's birther rants?
Having been one of National's "shadowy backers", do you want to know something? Jim Bolger wasn't fucked by a shadowy cabal; he signed his death warrant by signing a coalition agreement with a pathological bigot that went down with a LOT of grassroots members like a douche-bucket of vomit. I know this because I was one of them. He also lost the confidence of a majority of caucus.
And I'm really finding the concern trolling about Rodney Hide's new career as a knife block delightful.
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If we're keeping track of Brash's next set of blatant lies, this one from that Herald story has to be a doozy:
He was expecting to attract financial backers, but "I have none of that lined up".
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I think Danyl has nailed it here http://dimpost.wordpress.com/2011/04/28/why-brash-is-a-racist/
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Sacha, in reply to
Having been one of National's "shadowy backers", do you want to know something?
Unless you have pulled strings at senior level like Boag or injected millions into both parties over the years like Gibbs, Shirtcliffe, Foreman et al then you simply don't count.
your "shadowy backers" (funny how right-wing parties have that, while the left have sector groups and donors)
The difference is, the public gets told who those unions and others are, and their donations to Labour or the Greens or whoever are recorded in their published accounts. For the right we have to rely on disgruntled leakers to reveal what's laundered through their anonymous trusts..
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BenWilson, in reply to
lol @ shady cesspit. Yeah, I get an impression of a lot of behind the scenes maneuvering. Frankly, I find it very hard to believe that both Brash and Banks could be making such bold moves without even the slightest consultation with National, given that both have been very senior Nats in their time. I'm not going to claim I know a conspiracy when I see one, but it does rather freak me out that two major contenders to lead the whole country, and the entire amalgamated city of Auckland turn out to be so sympathetic to ACT that they are prepared to stand as candidates for it. WTF is going on in this country? Is this seriously how fucked in the head our leadership is?
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Sacha, in reply to
As but one example, leading Act functionary Brian Nicolle was one of Banks's key staff as Auckland Mayor.
There has long been a significant overlap of the right of National with Act. It might be interesting to hear more about what this latest move does for the tussle between the Key and English-supporting factions inside National.
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3410,
Key has ruled out Brash of finance, and said it's 'highly unlikely' he'll get a top job
I'd take that with a sack of salt.
Totally. All he's saying is that it's highly unlikely he'd need to give him a top job.
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The country has moved on from the rather grotesque assembly of old men that now form the ACT party, and I think the electoral appeal of the day before yesterday's man Don Brash is being wildly over-estimated.
Don Brash is seventy. John Banks is sixty five. Roger Douglas is seventy five. Paul Holmes is sixty one. I pretty sure John Armstrong and Audrey Young long ago bid farewell to fifty. This whole thing is one bunch of geriatrics talking up up another bunch of geriatrics as if nothing has changed from their salad days of the 1980s.
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Craig Ranapia, in reply to
Frankly, I find it very hard to believe that both Brash and Banks could be making such bold moves without even the slightest consultation with National, given that both have been very senior Nats in their time.
You've got to be extracting the urine. Do you know anyone involved with ACT, or are they the Higgs boson in your model of the political universe?
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Until Act suddenly jumps up above the 1% polling it most recently achieved, could someone remind me why I should care?
Whatever, it will certainly be a merry dance.
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Analysis from Nicky Hager and National party historian and political scientist Barry Gustafson on Radio NZ's Morning Report (streaming 7min, MP3 2.5MB).
Gustafson, hardly a screaming leftie, mentions the attempts by moneyed Aucklanders to hijack the party over the years. Hager says we're seeing a re-run, with many of the same people involved.
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Craig Ranapia, in reply to
Don Brash is seventy. John Banks is sixty five. Roger Douglas is seventy five. Paul Holmes is sixty one. I pretty sure John Armstrong and Audrey Young long ago bid farewell to fifty.
Too right – carousel for all the stupid smelly old people! Renew! Renew!
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Sacha, in reply to
All he's saying is that it's highly unlikely he'd need to give him a top job.
All he's saying is "trust me, I'm not the same as those guys". Expect similar utterances and carefully-crafted theatre between now and November.
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BenWilson, in reply to
There has long been a significant overlap of the right of National with Act.
Yeah, but it's never been so overt that the guy who came within a hair's breadth of running this country turns out to be so aligned with ACT that he not only wants to lead it, but is welcomed with open arms, like he's returned from a personal odyssey to his natural home. He didn't even have to hack the heads off the suitors, they fell on their swords willingly. And the guy who ran Auckland for many years is just dying to be a piece of it too.
. Do you know anyone involved with ACT, or are they the Higgs boson in your model of the political universe?
Yes, I do, and how is that relevant to my speculation that the former leader of the National party is highly likely to have discussed this move at great length with the party leadership - either directly or by proxy, or more likely both?
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Craig Ranapia, in reply to
Gustafson, hardly a screaming leftie, mentions the attempts by moneyed Aucklanders to hijack the party over the years.
Sorry, but what the fuck does this have to do with ACT? I know Barry reasonably well, and I don't think he's quite accepted -- let alone wrapped his head around -- the realities of MMP. The punditocracy still seem trapped in the idea that minor parties are just National and Labour's tame bitches, when the reality is ever so slightly more complex.
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Sacha, in reply to
what the fuck does this have to do with ACT?
Same people deep behind both is what I've been saying and you have been resisting hearing it seems. Gustafson didn't appear to be having any struggle with the conversation.
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Sacha, in reply to
it's never been so overt
Lack of any effective opposition can enhance the brashness of politicians.
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