Waiting for the other shoe to drop

Written By: - Date published: 10:31 am, September 17th, 2012 - 10 comments
Categories: national - Tags: , ,

The Collins Faction is tooling up again. While Judith Collins herself has been trying to present a more reasonable face in the House, her Slater/Lusk campaign team is trying to undermine her challenger, Joyce, and the incumbent, Key. Upping Tau Henare’s ridiculous run for Speaker is naked opportunism – but a closer read of Whaleoil, and some inside tips, point to a far more ambitious play on the way.

In the last couple of weeks, Slater/Lusk have written post after post about how vulnerable National majority in the House is, and about discontent among Collins Faction backbenchers who feel they have been overlooked for promotion to ministerial portfolios and are nervously looking at their low list positions and National’s falling poll ratings.

I’ll have more to write soon, but for now – ponder this line from Slater/Lusk: “That’s why buttocks should clench among senior ministers when they hear of any of Wagner, Kaye, Lotu-Iiga or MacIndoe are looking for a new job and thinking about resigning”.

Why is Slater/Lusk warning Joyce and Key that Lusk’s backbench clients, who are in the Collins Faction, could be making life difficult for them by resigning and leaving the Right – at least temporarily – unable to pass legislation that the Maori Party doesn’t support? What’s the game here? What are the Collins’ Faction about to do, and what is their real objective? Is the fact that Slater is involved a guarantee that this will be another clusterfuck?

And what about the concurrent anti-Kate Wilkinson campaign that Slater/Lusk are running?

More tomorrow.

10 comments on “Waiting for the other shoe to drop ”

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  1. mickysavage 1
    17 September 2012 at 10:48 am

    I thought the whole Tau for speaker stuff was pretty unbelievable.  The next thing they will do is no doubt suggest that an Auckland MP in a marginal seat is thinking of running for Mayor.  Cameron Brewer would not be pleased …

  2. King Kong 2
    17 September 2012 at 11:05 am

    Brilliant.

    Inconsequential bloggers with delusions of real potical power speculate on the poiltical power of another idiot fantasist blogger with delusions of real political power.

    Keep pulling those levers.

    [lprent: About the only author here who has had significant political power is Mike Smith, and he is retired (and IMHO he seems to spend far too much time on the golf-course – it can’t be healthy :twisted:). The rest of us just write our opinions on politics and anything else that strikes our fancy. Any political impact (which is what you’re actually referring to) we have from the relevancy of those opinions and the impact of those opinions on others.

    There is no real need for you to get quite so defensive about it. Unless of course you are worried about the opinions being expressed? In which case you should say why rather than simply attacking an author. I tend to get irritated about direct attacks on authors and while my political power is limited, my power in this site tends to be somewhat absolute. Perhaps you should read the policy again about self-martyrdom offenses. ]

  3. ianmac 3
    17 September 2012 at 1:54 pm

    Yep. There are rumours of discontent amongst those National backbenchers. High hopes but skills ignored. After all, the risky behaviour of their Leader does threaten their livelihood. And with a Crusher to lead such a faction, rumblings will echo down the valleys, soon. Feel almost sorry for John Key.

  4. captain hook 4
    17 September 2012 at 2:43 pm

    with high heels so you dont keep dragging your knuckles on the ground.

  5. Murray Olsen 5
    17 September 2012 at 8:20 pm

    How much of this is likely to be in Whalespew’s feverish imagination? I know he likes to pretend he’s connected and all that, but the only evidence I’ve seen is when something happens and he claims to have known about it since Muldoon was in nappies.

  6. Tom 6
    18 September 2012 at 8:21 am

    John Key does look a bit disengaged these says – probably dreaming of sunning himself on Hawai’ian sand before it gets claimed by Japan.

  7. captain hook 7
    18 September 2012 at 11:16 am

    he doesnt look too good going backwards as they say.