So, as I figured, the intention of last week's flurry of Parliamentary questions was to push David Benson Pope into a denial in the House - thus radically escalating the seriousness of the matter. And Rodney Hide's apparent backdown was also doubtless strategic.
If all of the allegations of historical bullying against Benson Pope were to prove true, they would have made it difficult for him to hold onto his associate education portfolio. But the idea that they should prevent him from continuing as fisheries minister would have been difficult to sustain - especially when former students and colleagues came forward to endorse his qualities as a teacher (as they are now, in some numbers).
But in Parliament last week he flatly denied a string of allegations about his behaviour as a teacher in the 1980s, ranging from the unexceptional to the unacceptable. If any of them are found to be true, he will stand accused of having misled the House, which is a matter for dismissal from Cabinet.
It all came to a head in a dramatic hour last night which began with 3 News's interviews with three of five of Benson Pope's accusers and concluded with an announcement from the Prime Minister's office that the minister had asked to be stood down pending an inquiry. And then Campbell Live had Rodney Hide with his serious face on. Nicely run, Rodney.
DPF says that if Benson Pope "had just said that he will not get into details, but regrets if any of his ex pupils felt his disciplinary methods were inappropriate, then the issue may be over. But like with Colin Moyle the denials are now the issue." This is probably true, but the Moyle parallel - with its implication of callous personal destruction for political ends - is unfortunate.
It is not to dismiss the complaints here to speculate as to how much this is part of a campaign of attrition on the perceived character of the government. If so, does the government now pick an Opposition MP with an unfortunate personal life and arrange for the favour to be returned? Or stick with its key message - Never Mind the Bollocks, We're Actually Doing Something?
We'll get lavish helpings of the latter with this week's Budget - especially as speculation mounts that Michael Cullen will actually spring a somewhat overdue shift in tax brackets on Thursday - but this might yet become a spectacularly nasty election campaign.
In the meantime, kudos to Olivia Kember at Dog Biting Men for launching the Gormsby meme.
Staying with schools, The Fundy Post has the lowdown on a story that's been quietly unfolding for a while: state schools allowing their Internet policies to be determined by a fringe Christian organisation:
New Zealand education has entered the Twilight Zone. Students can use the internet for study, but can only visit sites approved by a company run by fundamentalist Christians, who comb the records of sites visited by students to find new ones to ban and who encourage denouncement of sites they have not found themselves. They can do this because they have helped create a climate of fear where the internet is regarded as a lurking menace; they have used this fear to make profits and to impose their bigotry on students in our schools. Thanks to the Ministry of Education, this censorship is now available free of charge.
Here's a nice little video satire from Real Time with Bill Maher on the American debate over the teaching of evolution theory in schools.
PS: I decided to treat Sandra Paterson's frankly loopy column on the feminist underground (Dame Cath! You're being watched!) in the Weekend Herald as just a little breakfast entertainment rather than bother fisking it - although it was easy enough to determine that the shocking secret papers given to Paterson and (cough) Investigate magazine were hardly very secret, having been part of a select committee submission in 1973. But Anne Else on Scoop has taken it to bits quite effectively. So, er, when does John Roughan come back then?
PPS: This just in: Graham Reid, as ever, gets to the heart of the Benson Pope business.