NationStates Jolt Archive

I am quite interested in how the media and his party are treating this issue. I hate to see people's personal lives broadcast to the world, but personally, I think there are a couple of good reasons why his personal issues are relevant to his public life.

One is the general issue of credibility that all politicians face in these kinds of situations. If he can lie to or mislead the woman (or women) who are supposed to be his life partners, would he have any qualms about lying to the electorate?

The second is specific to Brash himself. Having vocally criticized others for failing to respect the sacredness of marriage (particularly during the civil union debate), he has shown his own inability to do so. I think that again calls his credibility into issue.

But I am interested in what other people think. By entering into public life, do politicians give up a certain expectation of privacy in their personal affairs?

As an effect of Brash's own conduct, yes in his particular case it is relevent. This is a person who has (as you stated) referred to the personal lives of other politicians in attempts to show that they dont have due respect for marriage. He got very much into the whole 'values' thing at the last election, and was happy to sling mud in order to infer that he had better morals and 'mainstream NZ family values' than his opponents.

He acted as though the marital conduct of his opponents was relevent to their appropriateness to lead the country, if he was correct then his own marital conduct is as much our business as the conduct of his opponents he was so certain needed to be thrown up in the electorate's face.

I guess maybe there aren't many Kiwis on NS. Or at least not any that care about Don Brash.

Who the hell is this guy?

If it's a male politician accused of sexual misconduct within the code of office - just do what President Clinton did - Go on live TV, and outright state the truth - HEY WAIT A MINUTE...:rolleyes: :p

At least Clinton moved through mostly unscathed.

Better sexual miscounduct in the office than starting a major regional conflict based on false claims if you ask me.

If he hadn't gone on TV in 2004 and appologies profusely for cheating on his first wife and said that he regretted it, maybe we wouldn't have cared when he did it again. His wife shouldn't be surprised considering that he cheated on his first wife with her.

Did you all see that zinger that Mallard gave him in parlament? Even Gerry Brownlee was trying not to laugh.


Next question: Who do you have for next leader, and by extention, the probable next PM? Key and English seem to be the most commonly thrown around names..

i'd like to see English back. i get the feeling he just hadn't really hit his stride the last time around, you know? lost not becuase he was bad for the job, but because things just didn't fall into place. i find it interesting that when they changed leaders, they left him in a fairly significant position within the party, rather than all but chucking him out [as they tend to seem to do]

to be honest, i'm of two minds about this. on the one hand, even politicians are entitled to their privecy. on the other... well, one should lead by example, if nothing else, and a good example this most definatly is not. as well as the whole credibility issue and so on.

of course, my sig says quite a bit about my opinion when it comes to NZ politics *laughs* national and labour both have some good people. sadly, however, they tend not to be the ones in charge.

meanwhile, i'm still amused by the back bench MPs a while back who were all for voting themselves out of a job [reduceing the size of parliment because they basicly did nothing :)]

politicians really should have that attitude. everything they do should be for the good of the nation... the majority of both major partys [including their leaders] care not for the nation, so far as i can see, but for their own screwed up idiologys [and, i must say, taken as a whole, this is EVERY party. a few individuals arn't qutie that bad], and their own paychecks.

*sigh* i think it'd do national good for Don Brash to step down as leader anyway. too many links to things that went badly, even when he wasn't responsible for them... though on that note i think they'd do best to chuck out the vast majority of their uper level members. heh.

yeah, i've rambled on enough and on enough tangents, i think. upshot of it all: i don't think Brash's behaviour should be the major media curcus causer it looks to be ready to become, nor should it really be a major issue in parliment. on the other hand, i really do think he should ... find a new job.

Next question: Who do you have for next leader, and by extention, the probable next PM? Key and English seem to be the most commonly thrown around names..

I figure Key; he's youngish, confident, fairly well spoken, interesting life story. Whatever the reasons for things not working out last time, English looks like a bit of an also-ran. But I had to laugh when Key said today that they had "An All STar Front Bench. We've got ten really good people that would mike good Ministers." I wondered what that said about the rest of their MP's?

Either way ... I hope the don't win an outright majority. Would be nice to see a strong coalition partner who will hold them to account.

personaly i'd rather labour and national both not only failed to gain an outright majority in their own right, but failed to gain a majorty at All, or even a majority in their "half" of the spectrum. not that the rest are a whole lot better, but at least they would be different. our system works because of momentum. it's hard to break. sadly, it's just as hard to fix when it Does break, and this Used to be done by replacing the one major party with the opposing major party, who would then [in theory] bring things back into line. they in turn would screw something up, and back it went...

labour's been around as The majory entity for too long at a stretch, i think. i'd take national over labour [Just barely.] but i'd really prefur to see someone... Anyone, else... wait.. not quite true. i Really don't want to see the greens as the major partner in a governing coalition. *thinks* or the destany party, really... and i hope and pray that the various 'don't call us nazis' or communist partys never get seats. hehe. actually, i think the comunist party gave up on getting into government and became something else. anyway, i digress.

i don't know a lot [read, nothing comes to mind, at all] about Key, but it seems unlikely to me that English would become the next leader. it'd be nice if he were, but *shrugs*

humm. hehe. sometimes i think we need more people who are good at their jobs and less politicians in government. the level of incompitance often astounds me.

I'm not sure the Greens are ready to be the dominant partner in a coalition yet. It would be nice to see them play a significant role in the next government, but I don't fancy their chances, given that so many of the other parties and other significant players on the NZ political scene (the farmers, the brethren) seem to object to them ... for what generally seem to me like pretty spurious reasons.

As much as I despise Brasho's politics, i think his private life should stay just so.
That said, it makes it much harder to attack Labour's lack of integrity with these kind of rumours floating around in public.

I say roll the bastard, my bet is on John Key for next leader, and he will most likely even win the next election. (Though personally I would prefer an Alliance - Green coalition)

As much as I despise Brasho's politics, i think his private life should stay just so.


And I think most Kiwis probably agree with you. I still say it calls into question his integrity. And in his case in particular, having brought other people's personal lives into issue, he could hardly expect his own to remain out of bounds.

Accusing the PM's husband of being gay ... what is this ... grammar school?

.... i think you'd be lucky to find 5 people in the NZ parliment who couldn't accuratly be described as at least one of the following the vast majority of the time: immature, incompitant, foolish, idiotic, petty, ignorant, irrelivant. and probibly one or two more i haven't thought of.

and that's even after ignoring the opinions of fanboys and girls on each side of the fence [how the hell any of them got 'fanboys' in the first place, i really don't know.]

Don Brash sounds like a textbook hypocrite.

Yes he is a swine,is it a big deal for me?
Sort of, is it a big deal for New Zealand?
Nah, no one really cares, it is just Fodder for the Monkey's in Parliment to chew over, how about they actually get on with running the country?

Queens, 'Princes of the Universe' , redone as 'Brash, Centre of the Universe!'
How true, but how undeserving.

Has the rumor even been confirmed?
Sure he cheated on his first wife, but thats nothing to dredge up, he reformed himself.
*assumes it is all a lie*

Anyways Aoetearoa Legalise Cannabis Party is the only one with any credibility...

heh. the ones with the credibility, sadly, are the ones who are Open about not doing what the people actually want and/or what is actually benificial to the nation. :P

wonderful, isn't it?

heh. the ones with the credibility, sadly, are the ones who are Open about not doing what the people actually want and/or what is actually benificial to the nation. :P

wonderful, isn't it?
Who says that the legalization of cannabis would not be beneficial for the nation?

Has the rumor even been confirmed?
Sure he cheated on his first wife, but thats nothing to dredge up, he reformed himself.
*assumes it is all a lie*

I think the reaction to the allegation pretty much confirmed it.