Posts by Russell Brown
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I haven't subscribed to much of the criticism of the Herald over this story, but this is bizarre. Here's the headline and intro:
Len Brown still honorary president of family values organisation
Auckland Mayor Len Brown will retain his position as honorary president of a family values organisation despite his extra-marital affair with a woman 25 years his junior.
The position at Home and Family Counselling has been filled by an Auckland mayor for the last 120 years, and the organisation has decided not to part from tradition despite Mr Brown last week admitting to a two-year relationship with local government hopeful Bevan Chuang, 32.
Except it's not a "family values organisation" by any common understanding of that phrase. It's a counselling service that happily helps people who've messed up in any number of ways.
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Speaker: Ed Kuepper: a legend interviewed, in reply to Alan Perrott,
I’ll be the one calling for River Deep Mountain High.
'Swing for the Crime' is on the list! Fingers crossed ...
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Really looking forward to Ed. And when I say that, I mean "I'm just gonna die every time he plays a song from one of the first three Saints albums."
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I think Simon Wilson basically gets it right in his November Metro editorial.
A few things now seem clear. One is that Brown is an idiot. Another is that the stench of depravity emanating from this affair comes largely from Slater and his little gang, not from Brown and his erstwhile lover Bevan Chuang. A third, following the golden rule of gossip, is that if I heard there was a scandal in the wings, and if some National Party MPs knew, then a great many people on the centre-right of Auckland politics probably also knew.
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Hard News: Moving right along?, in reply to Craig Young,
It takes two people to commit adultery, though, Lisa. I’m probably willing to cut Bevan some slack because my partner and I have a daughter the same age. Added to which, Brown was surely old enough to know better than to do this.
So was Chuang. She's 32. Age isn't an issue here. She certainly seems to have been used by the people who wanted the story out, and was clearly vulnerable in that respect.
Added to which, he’s a career politician who may well experience diminished damage to his career unless the allegations about improper council employment allegations turn out to be true. However, can the same be said in terms of Bevan Chuang? So, yes, I do think the comparison with Hester Prynne is appropriate. She has to bear much of the burden for this.
Well, yes. But she did sign an affidavit that detailed their sexual relationship in explicit and humiliating terms -- there would not have been a scandal if she hadn't. The story also had the unfortunate effect of bringing to light her criminal conviction as a museum employee.
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Hard News: Moving right along?, in reply to Craig Young,
Granted, Worth and Brash were getting their leg over in the same context, but it turned out to be questionable financial transactions and implied impaired transparency and accountability that made their sins capital offences in terms of their political longevity.
No. Worth was sacked by the PM after Key learned of the criminal complaint -- of "a sexual nature" -- a woman had made against him. There were apparently multiple stories of Worth's behaviour around women in the wings. There was a transparency issue in one woman's allegation that Worth had offered to arrange her a public-sector job if she had sex with him.
Brash? He'd just made such a mess of things -- including taking out an ill-advised injunction -- that he had to go.
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Hard News: Moving right along?, in reply to Craig Young,
Sadly no, Pope Bob hasn’t refrained from pontificating. He points out that Shane Jones fell on his sword for watching mucky DVDs in hotel rooms
Well, he doesn't know what he's talking about then. Jones' offence was charging his porn to the taxpayer.
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Hard News: Moving right along?, in reply to Craig Ranapia,
Well, Len Brown did with the “interview article” yesterday in the Herald – I just can’t believe he won’t STFU.
But he can’t win this media game, can he? He refuses to do interviews, cue the pompous, self-important “outrage to democracy” bullshit from the likes of John Armstrong. He doesn’t attend events the press would normally not even front to and the media narrative is “AWOL Mayor refusing to do his job.”
Well, exactly. There was a great hue and cry about him not talking to the press.
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Hard News: Moving right along?, in reply to Seamus Harris,
Seamus, much of what you have written exceeds even the lurid affidavit drawn up by Stephen Cook, which has now been disavowed in some key respects by its signatory, Bevan Chuang. Please stop.
As I’ve noted before, it’s funny that the actual matters of potential substance – the reference, the allegedly comped hotel rooms, Chuang’s New Lynn markets contract – were unearthed not by Cook and Slater but by the dreaded MSM journalists at the Herald. Cook was just too busy asking the hard questions about Len’s Brown’s penis size.
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Hard News: Moving right along?, in reply to Matthew Hooton,
I did wonder if it was a little dated.