Glenn yesterday belatedly sought to put the matter to rest, saying - contrary to a report last Friday - that he had not been offered a Cabinet post and his remarks had been lighthearted and "taken out of context".
It is easy to blame the media when you are in a fix - too easy. Rather, Glenn may have misunderstood something Clark had said to him on the occasions they met or might have met. Clark says they also shared a table at an Auckland University dinner in 2006, and they both attended a yachting regatta function on Kawau Island in 2003.
Regardless, Labour prays that is the end of the matter. However, politics is about perception. The episode may have been only mildly embarrassing for the Prime Minister. But it's on top of Glenn's becoming an officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit in the New Year's honours.
However justified the award - he has built a global transport empire - the inevitable impression is of Labour rewarding someone who donated half a million dollars to the party before the 2005 election and who subsequently gave it a $100,000 interest-free loan - the existence and source of which Labour has been far less transparent about.
In the short term, the whole episode has become an unnecessary distraction for Labour which was unnecessarily prolonged by Glenn taking three days to confirm Clark's version of events.
It is the kind of distraction that Labour made a New Year's resolution to avoid. And there is a longer-term downside for the governing party.
Thanks to Glenn, National now has some ammunition of its own to fire back when its main rival highlights National's campaign funding.
