Posts by Russell Brown
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Hard News: Moving right along?, in reply to Craig Ranapia,
Also, 51% is a little higher than Brown's share of the actual mayoral vote.
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Hard News: Moving right along?, in reply to Heather Gaye,
Uhh.. He likes Emma’s Missing Stair posts? Who wants to break it to him?
The comments are fantastic!
More evidence is needed to eradicate this Missing Stair. Lay it on him Whale!
And:
Bloody well said Cameron and Emma Hart.
Best Whaleoil thread EVER! ;-)
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Far out, they’re coming thick and fast now.
And also:
Brown claimed his decision to act as a referee for Chuang when she applied for a job at the city art gallery did not constitute an abuse of power.
He said he only provided her with a written reference – something he had done for a number of people
But Chuang claims that after being shortlisted for the position, the art gallery manager rang Brown to ask whether she was a suitable candidate for the job.
Brown said she was, and off the back of that endorsement she was given the job.
This is sorta problematic for Brown if true, because he has spoken only of a written response.
Otoh, if they genuinely just wanted to confirm she was “suitable” before offering her the job – well, yeah, she totally was. Here’s her CV.
She was well qualified to be sponsorship manager and is known as an ace networker. If only it weren’t for that little criminal business with the Museum …
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Hard News: Moving right along?, in reply to nzlemming,
Ooh, Slater’s put up a comment already saying Harman’s got it completely wrong. Now who would I believe?…
The fact that Price is associated with Nikki Kaye makes me more inclined to see him as basically sensible, but I think he's been working his angle pretty hard behind the scenes. Exactly where the fissure lies, I wouldn't know, but it's certainly been made more significant by all this.
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Hard News: Moving right along?, in reply to nzlemming,
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!
I know, right?
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Very interesting column by Richard Harman setting the affair in the context of National’s infighting:
It is abundantly clear from what we have seen as we have poured our way through literally hundreds of text and Facebook messages and pictures, and talked to the participants that the Slater group genuinely believe what Cameron said on “The Nation” on Saturday discussing the future of Auckland politics.
“Auckland politics is the same as where any politics is, in that it’s a dirty disgusting despicable game, and it involves dirty disgusting despicable people at all levels,” he said.
“And to have this high and mighty belief that New Zealand politics is clean, it isn’t.”
That should be enough to send a shiver through the Beehive.
Simply the National Party now has a group of its supporters who give every appearance of going rogue.
Maybe that’s why one source has suggested to us that it was actually a National MP who first led to Len Brown being tipped off the week before the Council election that a major sex scandal was going to break.
Other sources tell us that senior Nats who are in the loop have been tipping associates of the Mayor off as to what might come next.
You get the picture from Michelle Boag this weekend on “Q+A”.
“Whatever was going on with John Palino and the Slaters is nothing to do with the National Party.”
If people like Michelle Boag have decided that Cameron Slater is toxic — and she probably concluded that a while ago, the next question will be whether his supporters in Parliament, particularly Judith Collins and Maurice Williamson also decide to put some distance between themselves and him.
If they do, that will be a signal that the Tamaki Mafia have taken a big hit.
If they don’t then National’s civil war in Auckland will continue to smoulder away in the background ready to flare at any moment that Whaleoil decides.
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Hard News: Moving right along?, in reply to Mark Easterbrook,
Wow. There’s some serious mouth-frothing going on in the comments thread under that NBR story.
NBR has some very weird commenters. Sometimes it makes Kiwiblog comments look constructive.
It might also be noted that some of those commenters are pretty much making stuff up out of thin air.
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For those with strong stomachs and a robust sense of irony, here's Stephen Cook's account of how he and Slater were just honest dudes trying to break a scandal.
In other news, Cook has just told Duncan Garner he offered Chuang $100,000 to star in a porn movie.
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The scope of the review has been announced.
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Hard News: Moving right along?, in reply to SteveH,
You don’t think getting into that situation can be described as an error in judgment? I think that’s exactly what it is.
Yes, it is. And it's a lapse in judgement in precisely that part of human life where people do fail to act sensibly, make mistakes and do silly things.