Wishart's all too obvious smear

Now Ian Wishart's book is akin to Nicky Hager's - it is political with the motive of bringing down the political party (and leader) he dislikes.

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I have no time for Helen Clark and her politics. I wouldn't care to defend her and have never voted for Labour whilst she has been leader. I find her a control freak, statist and willing to regulate and tax whenever she sees fit - she sees the state big, growing, embracing and using education and the media to reshape the country in her vision. It isn't a vision of enterprise, freedom and diversity, but a vision of partnership - where the state never lets you go.

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However, Helen Clark's private life is another matter. I know enough to have my own opinion about her marriage and relationships, and frankly her sexuality is irrelevant to me. It does concern me that she chose to dedicate her life to politics, if only because it shows a passion for power - over others - that is cold, calculating and unfriendly towards individual freedom. Woe betide those in the way of Clark. She faced several challenges, in particular being the most hated Health Minister in recent history, then she knifed Mike Moore after the 1993 election to claim the leadership. Subsequently she saw Labour achieve its worst ever election result in 1996 with only 28% of the vote, but came back to win three elections in a row - albeit at all times with the help of Jim Anderton, Winston Peters and Peter Dunne to retain power.

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Wishart wishes to destroy her political career by the shock horror revelation about her marriage. What is disgusting is what a vacuous wasted effort such a revelation is, although Wishart can sell books, so do pornographers.

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Wishart could have brought down the Clark administration by having some real stories about conflicts in Cabinet and Caucus, some of the policies that nearly made it but were carefully avoided, and some of the debacles such as letting Air New Zealand fall so it could be nationalised. He could point at the government's record and see why growth has been stunted so much by the Clark administration.

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No, it was beyond him (and wouldn't sell as many books) to undertake serious analysis, he was into muckraking.

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Psycho Milt at No Minister has eloquently written about what it is all about. "This is where we get a good look into the psyche of the right-wing ranters who fill comments threads with vile abuse whenever the subject comes up (which it does with regularity, right-wing bloggers being what they are). What makes Clark and Davis “gay” is that they don’t fit these guys’ (well hell, you almost always are, and you know it) view of what a “real man” and a “real woman” should be like. "

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So now that Ian Wishart has played being News of the World, let's get down to some real reasons you shouldn't vote Labour.