Dance

Key again refuses to explain why Worth was sacked – The mystery of why Richard Worth was effectively sacked as a minister continued in Parliament yesterday. On Monday Prime Minister John Key refused to tell journalists why Dr Worth was forced to fall on his sword and yesterday he… [NZ Herald Politics]

The line right at the bottom of this article should tell you exactly why John Key doesn’t feel inclined to answer silly questions about hy he sacked Richard Worth.

Under parliamentary rules, Mr Key does not have to give any reason for dismissing a minister other than loss of confidence.

Right got that, now go ask Phil Goff to start telling the truth over his involvement in the honey trap with Neelam Choudary. So far not one single part of his stroy has been true.

The DomPost editorial has picked up on the role of Phil Goff in pimping out Neelam Choudary in their elabiorate sting operation to firstly get Richard Worth then John Key.

Labour has continued with the muck raking in the house today by continuing to focus on the Richard Worth affair.

The known facts suggest Mr Goff overstated Dr Worth’s sins in an attempt to besmirch his reputation and, by association, that of his leader, John Key. In doing so he has damaged his own reputation by showing he is prepared to throw political muck.

Actually the known facts show time and again Phil Goff has lied about Neelam Choudary and her husband and what he knew when.

Phil Goff jumped in boots and all and milked this situation for all it was worth (excuse the pun). The facts of his involvement won’t go away despite Richard Worth falling on his sword. There is much more to this story and slowly but surely I am piecing the evidence together.

Key silent on why he lost confidence in MP – Prime Minister John Key dug his heels in yesterday and refused to say why he lost confidence in former MP and minister Richard Worth several weeks ago. And he is adamant that he won’t reveal it in the future. He said that as… [NZ Herald Politics]

Good on John. All he needs to say is that he lost confidence, that he is the Prime minister, end of story and that is all he should say.

The media would do well to focus instead on the role of Mr Goff in this taudry and shoddy affair. His lies to the house, the media and the public continue despite almost every aspect of his filthy little story being proven to be a lie.

Phil goff needs to front up about his involvement in the honey trap.

I have described David Shearer as Labour’s Clem Simich, but could he really be Labour’s John Key. Watch this interview and listen carefully.

Note how he says Phil Goff is not internationally successful (a strange claim for a former foreign minister!)

And he says “not right now” about wanting to be leader.

Bill Ralston: No one wins from dirty tactics – He may have resigned but Richard Worth is not the only victim in this debacle. When you play in the muck you will get dirt on you. It’s a lesson Phil Goff forgot last week and it must take the gloss off the Mt Albert by-election result. When… [NZ Herald Politics]

Bill Ralston lays into phil Goff for his role in pimping out Neelam choudary, then acting all innocent about it and then leaking salacious details to the media in his attempt to make John Key look silly.

This continues the same story that Barry Soper has told, that the only people who knew the details were Phil Goff and John Key and that the story was peddled to the gallery so that questions could be asked of John Key.

It is obvious that Goff’s office first leaked the rumour to the Press Gallery that Labour had already warned Key of allegations of sexual harassment by Worth of another woman, who we now know is Neelam Choudary.

Leaving the Korean woman’s allegations to one side, it is also now apparent that the Choudary affair was largely a Labour set-up.

All Key was first presented with was allegations Worth had made inappropriate advances via texts, phone calls and a coffee meeting to an unnamed woman, but there was no hard evidence to back it up.

Not surprisingly, Worth denied all and, in the absence of proof, Key’s inquiries came to nothing.

When the proverbial hit the fan over the Korean woman, Labour dropped the whisper of the Choudary allegations and Key was forced completely on to the back foot and publicly embarrassed. Labour strategists would have been chortling.

Labour got caught though, largely due to me and Phil Goff’s injudicious comments aided by Brian Rudman’s loose lips as well. Phil Goff’s dirty tricks brigade has their fingers all over this, including their paid for lap-bloggers at The Standard running the lines that John Key revealed the identity of the woman in direct contradiction with the recollections of veteran political journalists.

No one has come out of this business with their reputation enhanced by what now must be seen as a Labour Party dirty trick.

Goff has ducked for cover, after a couple of weeks of drip-feeding juicy tidbits to the media and taking the moral high ground. That can only be seen as an admission he was wrong.

Goff is wrong, he must apologise and he must fall on his sword for his role in this grubby little 14 year old school boy sting that he and his office have run. Singlehandedly he has dragged Labour and politics in general into the sewer which is rightly the domain of bloggers.

While Labour and Phil Goff in particular continue to get down in the gutter other commentators have noticed that things are somewhat different than Labour paint as a picture.

Chris Trotter is one of them.

According to Labour and its left-wing allies, John Key is a hard-line free-marketeer who had to be “sold” to the New Zealand electorate (principally by the Australian political consultancy, Crosby-Textor) as a benign centrist. Had Key not adopted this persona, the Left insists, he would never have been elected. Which means National’s election-winning formula: Labour-lite + tax-cuts; cannot be abandoned before 2011 without putting its re-election at risk. Consequently, Key must wait until he wins a second term before unleashing his “secret” agenda: radical welfare reform + wholesale deregulation and privatisation.

But what if we are actually watching a very different movie? What if, far from being a sort of antipodean werewolf, impatiently waiting for the next electoral full moon so he can tear to shreds what remains of the egalitarian New Zealand dream, Key really is a moderate? What if the horror-movie we’re watching isn’t The Howling, but a political version of Night of the Living Dead, in which Key and his Finance Minister desperately battle the reanimated corpses of economic and social policies everyone believed dead and buried in the 1990s?

According to National Party sources, Neelam Choudary, has approached numerous National MP’s with camera in hand asking to have a photo taken with them and unprompted made light of her Labour party affiliation and said “but we are all friends around here”.

There are unconfirmed reports that she also made specific requests of National MPs an introduction to John Key, non of these requests for introduction have been as explicit as Phil Goff’s request, on her behalf, for a meeting with the most popular Prime Minister in living history.

Further Whaleoil can now reveal that Neelam Choudary has been an integral part of the Daivid Shearer campaign in Mt Albert. She is credited with running the “Get out the Vote” for the Indian community.

Exhibit A:

Masquerading as an ordinary Mt Albert voter from “Manukau”, she had this comment on the Mt Albert by-election.

The Waterview Motorway and Super City issues will play a vital role in the by- election. A number of Mt Albert residents are unhappy with the government’s decision to construct a combined surface tunnel through the communities to save cost.

Labour is in a strong position to retain the Mt Albert seat.

Besides, this constituency has had the benefit of strong and able representation by former prime minister Helen Clark. It is vital that the constituents bring a strong candidate who will represent them best in parliament. Labour’s David Shearer has the potential to be a good lawmaker and has experience with people.

FYI Phil Goff, a Zardozi is not a see through garment, it is an embroidery technique common in Indian fashion. More on Phil goff’s dishonesty later.

Garth George : Immediate exit the only Worthy option – If Richard Worth has any brains – and there is a suggestion that those he has reside elsewhere than in his skull – he should resign from the National Party caucus and Parliament forthwith. Heaven knows John Key and his National-led… [NZ Herald Politics]

There are some out there that think my revealing the name of the alleged victim in Goff’s Honey Trap scam is some sort of defense of Richard Worth. Let me put the record straight.

I think Richard Worth is a silly old goat who is a veteran rooter and Mr Feely Fingers. He has form, his is a fool and he should go.

Garth George thinks so too.

Heaven knows John Key and his National-led Government have enough on their plate without being sidetracked by the indiscretions of a sexagenarian spare part, which is essentially what backbenchers are in any government.

It doesn’t matter one whit whether Dr Worth did or did not use his position to get women to lie down for him, the mere suggestion is enough to justify his dismissal from his minor portfolios.

Exactly. He needs to go and before caucus next Tuesday so there are no further distractions. And as for the role of Phil Goff in all of this?

Mr Goff’s behaviour in this whole affair stinks to high heaven. For a man who kept the allegations against Dr Worth quiet for months after he received them to accuse Mr Key of taking too long to resolve the matter is a piece of hypocrisy that, even in a politician, is breathtaking.

Timing, they say, is everything and I presume the struggling Labour Party leader figured it was best to let the Budget and its reaction run its course before he struck.

Perhaps Goff should resign too.

Anger over ‘super mayor’ comment – Auckland regional mayors have reacted angrily to a speech in which Prime Minister John Key appeared to give a nod to John Banks as a super city mayoral candidate. [Stuff Politics]

The Clown of Campbells Bay, Andrew Williams who also masquerades as the North Shore mayor is upset and spitting the dummy over John Key’s speech at the National party Conference where he appeared to endrse John Banks for the mayoralty of the new Super City.

Well colour me surprised that Andrew Williams is upset. He gets upset if the wine runs dry.

But can he really expect any other comment when he spams all of National’s MP’s and other party members at 9:31pm and 11:21pm and 11:26pm the night the Auckland regional conference began and coincidentally the same night my “mysterious” fax attack from the North Shore City Council arrived.

Headers of the emails show categoricially they were sent from North Shore Servers at those times. I wonder if my LGOIMA request filed this morning for all fax logs and door access logs for North Shore City between the hours of 8:30pm and 11:59pm Friday 5th June 2009 will show anything interesting.

All I can say to Andrew Williams and Penny Webster is Diddums!

Why don’t they do what Len Brown has done and hire a Labour functionary to run their campaigns for them. (More on this later)

Key defers meeting with second complainant – Politics and protocol have intervened to prevent a meeting between Prime Minister John Key and an Indian woman who claims she was subjected to vulgar phone calls and text messages from MP Richard Worth. The woman said the messages… [NZ Herald Politics]

What is more interesting about John Key defering a meeting is two other things.

The audacity of Phil “Chicken” Goff calling John Key a chicken for not yet meeting the Labour party member who squealed months ago to him that he kept secret for 6 months and for Phil Goff’s somewhat strange comment that she;

was strikingly beautiful

What is that supposed to mean? I know compared to his previous leader and the current bunch of fuglies in the Labour caucus she probably is but come on, how believable is it for a “strikingly beautiful” woman to want to get a leg over with a low ranking minister who is over 60?

Richard Worth is simply an inept feely fingers, but he has gone too far in linking jobs to sexual favours. Phil Goff however is seriously over-egging the pudding and serious questions must be raised about his ability to lead Labour. It is also simply pathetic to call john Key a chicken when it was he who wouldn’t front on Close Up.