So, who knew that Don Brash was literally in bed with the Business Roundtable?
Well, apparently a lot of people. We here at Salient heard about it around this time last year, so presumably those in “the beltway” knew long before us. And, really, while I prefer to know as little as possible about Brash’s sex life, or the sex life of any other politician for that matter, one has to wonder how he managed it. Don Brash’s animal magnetism? I think not. (Or maybe it’s a Tory woman thing. I don’t know.)
What interests me more is what’s going to happen now that he’s has been caught with his pants around his ankles. Will he go? It certainly looks like it, and most people who spend a hell of a lot longer paying attention to this sort of thing than I do seem to think so. While the spin about how irreplaceable he is to the party in terms of fundraising (not entirely suprising, might I add, when he’s porking the Vice-President of an organisation that is a key supporter of the party) might have a ring of truth, it’s likely to be a last desperate attempt to salvage his leadership. The vultures appear to be circling already.
To be honest, I can’t say I’m sad to see him go. I never have, and hopefully never will, subscribe to his divisive and lowest-common-denominator style of politics.
But at the same time, the way the situation has developed is troubling. Yes, he was rumoured to be cheating on his wife, but surely that’s his business? While it was the actions a National MP rather than Labour that caused the story to finally break, Labour have been hinting and sniping in the House about it for a while. With Trevor Mallard’s “speaking of affairs” comment – televised on TV 3 in the weekend – it seemed only a matter of time before the shit hit the fan for Brash.
While it succeeded in getting the pledge-card-Phillip-Field-corruption issue off the agenda for a while, it’s not exactly an admirable way of doing it. Is this the kind of petty, scummy American-style politics that we want? Also, there’s been a lot of talk in the media about mutually assured destruction – I’m pretty sure Labour MPs aren’t saints. Glass houses and stones and all that.
I really hope all his stuff was on the front lawn when he got home. But then again, she should have known better. Once a cheater always a cheater.