Dermot Ahern is to step down at next election. http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/...reaking12.html
Never liked him, always came across as a blustering bully of little real substance.
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Dermot Ahern is to step down at next election. http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/...reaking12.html
Never liked him, always came across as a blustering bully of little real substance.
He says has been suffering from an unspecified painful medical condition that necessitates a change of pace. I reckon the kicking he'd receive from the electorate would be painful, alright.
http://www.rte.ie/news/2010/1130/ahernd.html
One down, seventy-odd (mostly very odd) to go...
(There's an opening as Justice Minister now Dahamsta: would you take it on for the "benno-fit" of all of us?)
Id like to see Mary Hanafin or maybe Batt O'Keeffe get the post after Cowan, then you would open up the very real possibility of the party decimating over the next 5 years, and becoming consigned to history. If someone like Micheal Martin gets it then they could recover. If you look down through the list of TD's they have - there are very few charismatic leaders they can call upon to lead them during what is bound to be the most difficult in the party's history. Maybe the localised politics which has seen them thrive in the past 15 years is going to be the sword upon which they fall now.
Can't agree with that, or at least the latter part of it. I wouldn't be mad about any FF TD, but whatever about his methods, you can't argue that he got things done. In particular in my awareness, because I was with IrelandOffline at the time, he implemented FRIACO and the National Broadband Plan (admittedly failed, but not because of Ahern), which got Ireland where it is today in the Internet rankings. That would be close to the bottom of course, but I think without Ahern we would actually be below the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He's also responsible for the (admittedly watered-down) Civil Partnership Bill.Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr A
Of course he also proposed and implemented Blasphemy, so he's far from perfect. But he does actually show some competence. For a Fianna Failure. Credit where's it's due like.
I'd like to see every Cork man and woman give O'Keeffe a funt up the hole; just to disassociate ourselves from him, you understand. The man is an incompetent, asslicking, populist knacker.Quote:
Originally Posted by Real ale Madrid
It's not actually in effect yet, and has a load of right wing crap tagged on to it! Very watered down for same sex couples, but what could you expect from someone who spoke so forcefully against the decriminalisation of homosexuality in the dail? Good feckin riddance.Quote:
Originally Posted by dahamsta
It's progress Macy, in the same way flat-rate internet was. Crap progress, but progress nonetheless. Unfortunately that's the nature of politics, progress is incremental. Generally speaking progress that isn't incremental is even worse -- badly written bills with loopholes galore.
I'm not applauding the guy here, I just don't think it's fair to write him off with the same vehemence you'd write off some FFers.
Indeed. Having your head up your arse is presumably both painful and slows one down.Quote:
Originally Posted by Eminence Grise
dahamsta- fair enough points but I'll never forgive him for the blasphemy thing. That was just mental.
Rheumatoid Arse-ritis?Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr A
Ahern figured he'd get the top job in FF once his namesake was chased out. He figures Michael Martin is a shoo in next time, so he's not waiting. Not a nice man, in any dealings I had with him he was not pleasant - anyone in Dundalk who knows about the development on the Armagh Road (along the river - playing fields etc) will know too well. Adams will get a big vote in Dundalk, get elected and the FF'ers will go mental.
Look up his comments during homosexualty decriminalisation bill.guy is a sick homophobe.good riddance.
I'd like to see Mary Coughlan get the job, if only to put the final bullet in the party's head.
As long as there's a possibility of them getting 1 seat there's a possibility of them regrouping. The only thing that I can see happening that could spell the end of FF would be for the leader not winning a seat. That would be lights out and then whoever does win a seat would now doubt be a potential leader. Mattie McGrath anyone?
Mary Coughlan: ...although people have forgotten that we did take massive reductions in ministerial pay, as did the Taoiseach last year...
Jesus wept.
The topic on the 'Frontline' right now is - "What will become of Fianna Fail?"
Oh Dear God! We’ve just had a reminder of what some of FF’s 13 per centers look like when they’re let out in public.
They spout party mantras like a Moonie convention. One woman said she couldn’t vote for the Blueshirts. I use the word to get an occasional rise out of my students, but it positively dripped with venom when she said it. In fairness, the same woman said she wanted a coalition of the left in the next government (not just Labour/SF, mark you, but all the dippy do-lallies out there on the lunatic fringe as well), so she may not have been entirely compos mentis....
Nauseating harping on about the good old days under Devil Eire and Lemass – whatever about the latter’s eventual conversion to modernity and economic development, Dev bequeathed us a parochial, morally bankrupt political party with an overweening sense of entitlement to public office. Oh, and Brian Cowen is a hardworking, honest man. It makes a refreshing change in FF, I suppose, but when the minimum expectations of a public office holder are trotted out as his best attributes, I really despair.
Meanwhile, Michael Martin came across all “statesmanlike” and as “humble” as an FFer can be... His bid for the leadership started rolling tonight. He had to come out after Hanafin threw her hat in the ring, and his performance was, I reckon, all about him rather than defending the party....
Did it? I thought she was laughing when she said it, but she also did seem stupid enough to actually mean it.Quote:
Originally Posted by Eminence Grise
100% correct. I lasted approx 30 seconds of the love-in. Can't stomach it ever. VB debating the social consequences of our "bail out" deal was more my thang.Quote:
Originally Posted by Eminence Grise
I will now proceed to bed and seeth and despair at some of my fellow countrymen. We really are a laughing stock of a country.
Our attachment to political history is touching.
And by touching, I mean in the "slow kid on the bus" kind of way.
The country has been bankrupted and some people still manage to think that an irrelevance from 80 odd years ago is a more important determinant of how to vote.
I came home last night and sat watching Prime Time Investigates and then the Frontline, and VB when I couldn't sleep early this morning. My god, I nearly dropped my kebab when that troglodyte from Kilkenny said about Blueshirts,, before saying she'd like to see a coalition of the left, but that she would probably still vote for FF in the end. It's what I've posted before, FF will stay in power because of the gombeen element in Ireland. It's not just down the country, Dublin have returned the two Lenihans time and again and it won't be changing. It's just sick, totally sick, and Martin will go for the leadership, as will Lenihan lite.
It hurts Spud it hurts.
Bleh.