Fair weather friends

Written By: - Date published: 2:21 pm, May 26th, 2009 - 32 comments
Categories: john key, mt albert - Tags:

Watch as the Tories try to distance Key from Lee.

Remember that Lee was Key’s personal choice. Young, pretty, smiley, not too sharp on the detail – he must have seen a lot of himself in her. He believed that she would win on the back of his popularity. In Key’s mind this would be the first conflict between him and Goff. Not only would he give a Goff a bruising, if Lee could win it would be a knock-out blow. Key used to bring up the by-election all the time. He really thought his girl would win it for him.

How badly wrong Key got it.

The Tory leadership placed Lee under huge pressure with their bungling of Waterview and the Supercity. Then didn’t give her the back up.

A competent candidate would have been able to handle the pressure and lose gracefully but Lee is a self-satisfied moron who shoots her mouth off. Again, that’s something Key should have realised would be an issue. Maybe no-one would have realised it would be this bad. It should have been predicted by anyone who knew her that she would go off the rails at some point though. The Standard did on much less information.

Key should have made allowances for it. Instead he just gave her all the rope she needed. Poor management. Poor judge of character. Poor treatment of a colleague and ally.

Lee’s the disaster, but Key put her there.

He didn’t set Lee up to fail. He set her up to win. But he made the former inevitable. Now her campaign’s imploded Key is abandoning her. To try to avoid the stink of failure attaching to him.

Lee was his golden girl but loyalty doesn’t run deep in the Tories.

32 comments on “Fair weather friends ”

  • Comments are now closed

  1. the sprout 1
    26 May 2009 at 2:26 pm

    rats, sinking ship, etc etc.

    major dent in the National leadership’s judgement. and one is left wondering how many other seriously weak links there are in the 2008 National intake. i know i’ll be looking closely.

    and i wonder who’ll be left to contest mt albert for National in 2011? surely Ravi won’t be so shameless to scurry back and pick up the pieces again?

  2. Mr Magoo 2
    26 May 2009 at 2:33 pm

    Scurry back to be even more soundly defeated after a full term (as opposed to 6 months) of this train wreck of a government??

    I guess it is better to be a somewhat famous loser than a never-ran nobody….at least for some.

  3. Murray M 3
    26 May 2009 at 2:44 pm

    I have to agree with you lot that Key’s treatment of Melissa has been appalling. I also reckon any day now he will give in to the conquered race.

    • Pascal's bookie 3.1
      26 May 2009 at 2:52 pm

      … I also reckon any day now he will give in to the conquered race.

      Gosh aren’t you daring!

      Murray M
      May 26, 2009 at 2:27 pm
      “Funny but I did not witness one incident of heckling from the crowd and you would think that in the middle of Queen Street there would be at least a couple of reactionaries.’

      Micky, with all those fired up Maori present you would have to have a death wish.

      Oh. Nevermind.

  4. Tim Ellis 4
    26 May 2009 at 2:47 pm

    […] but Lee is a self-satisfied moron who shoots her mouth off

    Oh please keep calling her that. Along with “corrupt”, “thieving”, and “racist”.

    I keep asking people who abuse her online why, if she’s so little threat, Labour have focussed so much attention on her.

    Ms Lee has sky-high name recognition in Mt Albert. If Mr Shearer was fronting his own campaign, rather than Mr Goff, Mr Mallard, and Mr Hughes, then people might know who he is.

    • Kaplan 4.1
      26 May 2009 at 2:51 pm

      Tim, do you believe National put forward their best candidate?

    • mickysavage 4.2
      26 May 2009 at 4:48 pm

      Tim you obviously have not spent any time in the electorate lately. Goff has fronted up but Mallard and Hughes have been there perhaps one day each.

      Shearer’s recognition is sky high. He is known as the humanist who was in charge of the UN in Bagdhad and who has come back to win the seat for Labour. He is also personable, not likely to hype things up, and is deep rather than flashy. People like him.

      Lee is a trainwreck. The nats thought they could win the seat with one of their new superstars. Instead they have blown the honeymoon, antagonised the Indian community, and Key has suffered a major dent to his credibility.

      Labour has not focused too much attention on her, she has done it herself.

    • Chris G 4.3
      26 May 2009 at 8:57 pm

      Tim you really are a record player stuck on repeat. Honestly the amount of times you have said words to the effect of: “If Mr Shearer was fronting his own campaign, rather than Mr Goff, Mr Mallard, and Mr Hughes, then people might know who he is. You’d think Shearer is some devil in disguise wouldnt you? .. I mean Do you?

  5. Relic 5
    26 May 2009 at 2:47 pm

    Back up the bus here, unless Zetetic has actually mastered time and space it might be an idea to wait for the result on election day. I fully support a Labour win in Mt Albert, but this wishful triumphalism makes me uneasy.

  6. Daveski 6
    26 May 2009 at 2:58 pm

    Normally the trolls are those posting the comments. I suspect most of Mr Z’s posts could be filed under “looking for a reaction”.

    The focus on Lee has enabled Goff to get away with little damage from parachuting in his own mate who admittedly appears to have a safer pair of hands.

    • the sprout 6.1
      26 May 2009 at 3:08 pm

      a safer pair of hands than Lee (or Sideshow Bob for example?), now that is faint praise.

    • lprent 6.2
      26 May 2009 at 5:24 pm

      Umm we decide the trolls….

      Of course the fact that labour has made an effort, and national have been notable for their absence (and a lousy candidate) could have something to do with the outcome.

  7. Noko 7
    26 May 2009 at 3:13 pm

    Young, pretty, smiley, not too sharp on the detail – he must have seen a lot of himself in her.

    I see what you did there.

  8. hvillvoter 8
    26 May 2009 at 3:21 pm

    “but Lee is a self-satisfied moron who shoots her mouth off”

    A bit like Trevor Mallard does? Will he apologise for his cock up in thinking she mis-used NZ on air funds.

    On that ground, if she is such a moron maybe you can outline those in the Labour caucus that had such a successful business. If she is such a moron then surely all those stars would have easily been able to do what she did, or does it go without saying that such stars like Darien Fenton, Lynn Pillay, Ashaf Choudery are a class above her?

    • Daveo 8.1
      26 May 2009 at 3:39 pm

      I don’t think Z was saying there are no morons in the Labour Party, but Lee truly is in a class of her own.

      Fenton’s actually very good. Pillay and Choudhary are pretty lousy, but then no one’s ever held them up as the future of their party in the way National did with Lee.

      It’s that gap between the brand of Melissa Lee we were sold and her actual performance that’s got people talking.

    • Zetetic 8.2
      26 May 2009 at 5:40 pm

      hvillvoter.
      Shall we have tearful apologies every time someone raises valid questions based on the testimony of a witness and a subsequent report doesn’t back up the witness (or call her a liar)?

      Success in buisness doesn’t mean you’re not a moron. Thinking that motorways stop criminals getting into a suburb means you are.

      Anyway, her success has been in sucking on the teat of the State. Nearly all her company’s income is from NZ on Air. Thought you would oppose that.

      • the sprout 8.2.1
        26 May 2009 at 7:52 pm

        “Success in business doesn’t mean you’re not a moron”

        indeed

        Exhibit A: Bob the Builder
        Exhibit B: John Banks

        • vto 8.2.1.1
          26 May 2009 at 8:42 pm

          “Success in moron doesn’t mean you’re not a business”

          indeed

          Exhibit A: Nicky Hager
          Exhibit B: Helen Clark

  9. John Dalley 9
    26 May 2009 at 4:47 pm

    i was intrigued to watch John Key on last nights news starting to lose it. Less than 200 days and the pressure from inexperience is starting to show.
    The problem with Key is that he has no belief or principles to stand that he stands by.
    He is a manufactured item turned out by Crosby Textor and if he goes of message he is lost.
    With the economic situation as it is, National would be lucky to be a two term government, with the added inexperience of John Key they are going to be in serious trouble come the next elections.
    I also predict that Bill English will get very tired of JK’s lack of competence and further trouble and conflict will develop between the two of them.

  10. SeaJay 10
    26 May 2009 at 6:52 pm

    Could not the Jonkey get in there and win it for the SillyLady?

  11. vto 11
    26 May 2009 at 8:38 pm

    “.. but loyalty doesn’t run deep in the Tories.”

    so ignorant again zit

    • Kevin Welsh 11.1
      26 May 2009 at 11:29 pm

      I’m sure Jim Bolger would disagree vto.

      • vto 11.1.1
        27 May 2009 at 8:33 am

        The ignorance is not in thinking loyalty doesn’t run deep in the tories Mr Welsh the ignorance is in thinking it is limited to the tories.

        • Kevin Welsh 11.1.1.1
          27 May 2009 at 8:52 am

          Get your hand off it vto.

          Only my bank manager calls me Mr Welsh. Kevin will do just fine.

          • vto 11.1.1.1.1
            27 May 2009 at 9:21 am

            Oh, okey dokey. Heard the one about the cricket that walked into a bar? Sat down and asked the barman for a drink. Barman says ” ‘ere, we got a drink named after you”. The cricket says “what, Kevin?”

  12. Rodel 12
    26 May 2009 at 9:38 pm

    Tory talk by the Sarah Palin of Mt Albert. ” I’ll have to move to Mt Albert because my son wants to go to Mt Albert Grammar.”

    Melissa Melissa – Tories might think this but they don’t say it on national radio or TV. They say…” because it ‘s a good place to live with good people.”

  13. emmess 13
    26 May 2009 at 11:28 pm

    You dickheads are so smug aren’t you?
    Nobody has any proof Melissa Lee’s campaign has been derailed, just because Duncan Garner from TV3 bloopers and practical jokes says so it doesn’t make it true
    There haven’t been any polls.
    Yes, it is more likely than not that Shearer will win, but I woulddn’t be so sure

    • r0b 13.1
      27 May 2009 at 12:09 am

      Nobody has any proof Melissa Lee’s campaign has been derailed

      Mmm, no, no proof at all.

    • lprent 13.2
      27 May 2009 at 7:26 am

      I’m working in the Labour campaign in Mt Albert. No-one is slacking off here. You have to put in your best efforts on any campaign because the only votes that count are the ones at the ballot box – in ANY election.

      In fact the slacking appears to be largely in the Nat’s. I think that Ravi used more effort in the last two elections. Took the Nats forever to even get their hoardings all up.

  14. Rodel 14
    27 May 2009 at 8:20 pm

    It;’s OK
    She’s stoppped using the Cros-Tex-Key word “Look” (13 times in one interview on morning report) to the expression, “Y’know” (20 times I think)-

    What’s the next word to use in the training menu C-T ?

    Horrors – I thought I heard a labour member say the “Look” word- It’s contagious.

The server will be getting hardware changes this evening starting at 10pm NZDT.
The site will be off line for some hours.