On being apoplectic, angry and Browned off- the Auckland Mayoralty affair

I suppose I should be apoplectic. I suppose I should be angry. I suppose I should be offended. I suppose  I should be outraged. I suppose I should be livid. I suppose I should be incensed. I suppose I should be baying for Len Brown’s blood.

At least that is what the prurient, the righteously outraged of the C&R, National, ACT and associated hangers on would want me to be.

But I’m not, at least not with Len Brown.

I am, though, apoplectic, angry, offended,outraged, incensed and baying for the blood of the holier than thou prurient and salaciously salivating opinionistas and right-wing councillors like Dick Quax and company. For these people are the people who have demonstrated a desire to ignore the manifold infrastructural problems, left behind after generations of inadequate governance by the Citizens & Ratepayers (National Party in drag) Councils,  that besiege Auckland and to concentrate their pusillanimous minds on the minutiae of the Mayor’s sexual dalliance.

I voted for the Mayor to be a responsible governor of the city based on his performance in Manukau and as Mayor of Auckland. I voted for the Mayor on the basis of his vision for the city. I voted for the Mayor on the basis of his record as a Mayor. I did not cast my vote  on the basis of the Mayor’s private life for if I did allow my vote to be persuaded by the private lives of those who would represent us on the Council I would probably be very limited indeed as to who I could cast a vote for.

I simply do not believe that what a person does in their private life should affect the person’s ability, as a Councillor or Mayor, to act in the greater interest of the city. There is a caveat to that. If the Councillor or Mayor was known to be a swindler, a scam artist or involved in self serving business manipulation then there is a legitimate argument to question their involvement in public administration.

However, this caveat does not apply in the Len Brown affair. Len Brown has a clean business record as a Councillor and as a Mayor. What is of concern is the readiness of those who are apoplectic, angry, offended, outraged, livid, incensed and baying for blood to accept and act upon the proposition presented by John Palino’s aide de camp Luige Wewege and the obnoxiously offensive Cameron Slater that blackmail is an acceptable tool in local body and national politics, especially if their candidate or group are to be defeated at the ballot box.

I would and will find it incredibly easy to decide not vote for or side with the group or any of the councillors who have allowed themselves to be persuaded that the revelations and subsequent enquiries into Len Brown’s private life and his affair with Bevan Chaung are the basis for undermining the progress being made to build Auckland’s infra structure and develop its services to the rate payers under Mayor Brown’s leadership.

Len Brown need not resign for to do so would be to give credibility to those who would prefer blackmail over policy, would prefer blackmail over performance and prefer to live in the dark, black underbelly of politics rather than developing and presenting programmes that ensure Auckland becomes and remains a liveable city that one can be proud to live in. Unfortunately, those who would discredit the office of the Mayor, those who would work to destroy Len Brown’s political credibility and record remain as embarrassments to the citizens and ratepayers of the city and region.
Surprise, surprise the councillors proposing to move no confidence in the Mayor have revealed themselves. They are  Dick Quax, Linda Cooper, Cameron Brewer, Sharon Stewart and Denise Krum.Their record speaks for themselves.

PS: Sua William Sio has put the case to support Len well on Facebook.

On Moral Outrage and Election Campaigns

Ignoring the total ignorance of NZ Election processes revealed in the the thinking of those involved in the Palino Mayoralty campaign one of the interesting side effects of the Slater- Cook released salacious attempt to unseat Len Brown from the Auckland mayoralty has been the “outrage” expressed by the “moral right”, epitomised by Cameron Brewer and Dick Quax’s commentaries calling for Brown’s resignation and, presumably, public self flagellation.

The Slater group and their supporters have raised their moral knickers high above their heads and called for Brown’s resignation because he was foolish enough to fall for the wiles and sexual promise of a nubile and exotic younger woman. Their argument is based that Brown’s sexual dalliance makes him unfit to be mayor but ignores the greater moral wrong of the use of blackmail in order to gain personal political gain.

Blackmail is defined as extortion of payment in return for silence by using threat or “moral” pressure. It is an offence in law and an offence against society which immediately puts those who have elected to hang their moral knickers on the whale oil dirty laundry line into a very discreditable camp.

If Brown had given into the pseudo moral outrage generated from the salacious revelations      coming from the Slater-Cook camp in their attempt to exploit the “scandal” he would have capitulated to a group who have even more questionable values that those he has been accused of.
One can only assume that for the political hypocrites that have linked themselves to Slater and Cook the irony that they have committed themselves to supporting a greater morally wrong course of behaviour escapes them in their pursuit of power and influence at any cost.

Brown can only be congratulated in his determination to stand against those who are determined to corrupt the local and national political scene.

Draw a line between the dots then see the conclusion

The Emmerson cartoon sums up the motivation behind the attack on Len Brown.

The motivation behind the revelations about Len Brown's affair calls into question the behaviour, beliefs and mind set of the National-ACT bloggers.

Once one starts to draw lines between the dots the dropping of the information about the affair then one can only assume that the false out rage of hypocritical morality calling for Len Brown to resign  has been a deliberate attempt by the "dark forces" that control the right wing campaigning to discredit anyone who dares to oppose and beat them in an open election campaign.

The revelation that Chaung's paramour, Luigi WeWege, was a member of the Young Nats and closely associated with the group who cluster around the Slater-Lusk National-ACT "ginger group" adds even more suspicion about the motivations behind the anti-Brown campaign.

Add to the mix the revelation that defeated Mayoral candidate, Palino, also had a clandestine meeting with the"wronged" woman in an Auckland car park the day after the election to discuss what the Herald reports as:

"Bevan Chuang claims Mr Palino's camp raised the possibility that Mr Brown could be shamed into resigning the mayoralty."

" Ms Chuang claims she and Mr Palino discussed revealing to Mr Brown information about the affair and whether he might resign, claiming poor health. (He suffered a major heart attack in May 2008.)

"This would give him an opportunity to be a hero and assured that ... he did not lose any face, and yet allow him to move on to bigger and better political agendas," she said."

 "Last night, Mr Palino's campaign manager, John Slater, confirmed a meeting had taken place, but said it was just a "general chit-chat"."

and the suspicions about motivation get even more murky.

What is pleasing to see is that Len Brown fronted on the revelation immediately and that the councillors who have worked closely with Len have  refused to indulge in the sleaze based judgement being encouraged by the right wing bloggers associated with Slater.

Brian Rudman sums the issue up succinctly and well.  It is unfortunate that the torrent of sleaze has led to a leading journalist loosing his position for writing an editorial in support of Len as mayor.

It was also disappointing to see that Attorney General, Chris Finlayson revealed a briefing paper  headed "What to say in the event of the Mayor resigning" at the same time as Slater was feeding the rumour mill that Len would resign before Friday in the face of his self admitted politically motivated campaign to ruin Len's political career and reputation.

"Of course politics was involved. Of course I want to knock Len Brown over I have tried to knock him over before with his expenses at Manukau. He weaselled his way out of that one and he is trying to weasel his way out of this too," he (Slater) said.

What is of even more concern is that Finlayson revealed the briefing paper to the TV cameras just as the Solicitor General indicated that his office was seriously considering taking over the prosecution of the ex Cabinet Minister and leader of the ACT party, John Banks, for his offences under the electoral act which, if successful, would force him out of parliament.

The joining of the dots... real or imagined ... becomes even uglier and even more unsavoury.

The philosophy that drives Slater, Lusk and company.

His latest denial of plotting to over throw Len Brown, in the face of further revelations about his involvement with Ms Chaung, ring so hollow that laughter echoes through out the blogosphere. No nmatter hard Slater tries to escape the public odium that his actions have begun to heap upon him he cannot reconcile his earler statement that he has always been attempting to knock Len Brown over with his latest TV denial to:

"Ms Chuang said in her statement that she spoke to Cameron Slater on the morning after the mayoral election, and he told her the revelations would shame Mr Brown into resigning.
When that was put to Slater by The Nation, he said: "Well it would. It would shame him into resigning, it should shame him into resigning."
But Slater denied involvement in a plan to get Mr Brown to resign.
Slater said there had been "a lot of assumptions and a lot of leaping to conclusions".
"There's a lot of talks of plots. I can tell you that there was no plot from myself and Stephen Cook [the freelance journalist who helped break the story on Whale Oil] at all.

Slater should remain under the wood pile and be treated as the sleaze monger that he is.