No-one’s happy with the revelations about Len Brown’s private life, apart from Slater (himself also an adulterer) who is wallowing in all the details that Chuang seems only too happy to provide. But what’s interesting is that this is clearly a political play. Who’s behind it and what do they have to gain? The players: Slater, Slater snr, Chuang, and Palino.
The timing is a clue. More specifically, why didn’t they drop this during the campaign? Mike’s theory is that it relates to the Banks court case. I respectfully disagree. Sure, it decreased coverage of Dotcom’s appearance yesterday but this is only a pre-trial hearing and if (when) Banks goes down, he’ll go down big.
I reckon, instead, that the timing relates to the election results coming out on Saturday. Chuang herself was standing for election. She wouldn’t have wanted this scandal hurting her own chances, so it couldn’t come out before she knew she had lost.
But isn’t it too late now that Brown’s been re-elected? Not if he resigns.
You’ll note that Chuang – by all accounts a perfectly willing participant in the affair – has been very quick to call for him to resign for the behaviour that she was part of. If she genuinely believed that the affair made him (and her) unfit for office, she would have revealed it ahead of the election.
Let’s draw some links: Chuang was a rightwing candidate, apparently linked to the Palino campaign. Palino’s campaign was run by John Slater, Cameron Slater’s father. Three days after the election results: Chuang’s telling all on Slater’s blog. hmmm.
To what end?
If Brown resigns (he won’t and at this stage I can’t see why he would) Palino doesn’t accede to the mayoralty automatically but he would be far and away the front runner for the new election that would have to be held quickly.
Is that the play? Palino couldn’t beat Brown, so now they’re trying to engineer a new race without Brown and before the Left can find a replacement, and one of the Right’s candidates is only too happy to use her personal life to further that cause.
lprent: Or is it at Rob Emmerson suggests, all just a byproduct of Cameron’s porn fantasies?
Powered by WPtouch Mobile Suite for WordPress