John Armstrong writes in today's New Zealand Herald that Labour received a drubbing in Parliament yesterday on the Glenn corruption issue.
The trouncing was almost complete before Justice Minister Annette King described Bill English as "Mr Nasty". But that sealed victory for the Opposition.
When a minister as experienced and normally dominant on the parliamentary stage as King resorts to name-calling to avoid answering a question from an opponent, that is as close to an admission of defeat as you are going to get.
And
English's persistence made it a grand slam for National after John Key also got the better of the Prime Minister on the subject of Glenn, his donations, the loan, his New Year's honour, his claim (subsequently withdrawn) that he was offered a Cabinet post and, in the latest bizarre twist, his possible appointment as honorary consul in Monaco, his official home.
Key cut straight to the chase, asking Helen Clark if she had been aware of the loan when the Cabinet honours committee recommended Glenn for an Order of Merit.
The Prime Minister confirmed she had been, "but, of course, the honour was made irrespective of such factors".
Key then wanted to know why she had not corrected Labour Party president Mike Williams for saying - after the honour was made public in January - that Glenn had not made a donation to the Labour Party since 2005, given such interest-free loans counted as a donation.
Clark retorted that she had been overseas "and had no knowledge of it at the time". She similarly proclaimed ignorance as to how the Government had come to be considering Glenn's appointment as honorary consul.
Key then pondered why the Prime Minister struggled to either remember or reconcile things when Glenn's memory seemed to be intact.
