The Cedar Lounge Revolution

Got to smile, and no doubt Tom Kitt, reeling from his demotion, allowed himself the ghost of one when he read that:

THE NEW Government Chief Whip, Pat Carey, narrowly avoided a major political embarrassment last night when the Government side was almost defeated in a Dáil vote.

And…

But at 8.30pm when the vote was being taken on the Labour Party’s private members’ motion on the performance of the economy, it looked for a while as if the Government might be defeated because it might not be able to muster enough TDs.

The Government has a working majority of 12 of the 165 voting TDs in the Dáil – the 166th is the Ceann Comhairle, John O’Donoghue.

But last night, amid a great deal of confusion, the Government side scraped through in the end with 65 votes to 62, a majority of only three. Initially it seemed that it had won by only two votes when the electronic count was taken. But whips from all parties agreed that one of the Opposition TDs had been double-counted on the electronic system.

Incidentally, I think that the majority of 12 is down one due to some sort of pairing arrangement with FG for one B. Ahern.

What a mess. One hopes it is not a sign of things to come.

Meanwhile, anyone catch the - ahem - provocative cover of the new issue of the Phoenix? And inside the information about the manner of Ahern’s departure was most interesting. The Phoenix suggests that this was part of an internal FF push, which while not exactly news is somehow more substantive in hard print. And those responsible? Why none other than members of the cabinet acting in concert.

There is no hint of a suggestion that the Green Party or the Progressive Democrats were involved. Quite the opposite. This was - purportedly - a coup d’etat inside the real etat. Not that the idea that the Green Party would jump ship should matters continue as they were wasn’t mooted. But in this instance it would have been with a helpful shove from some within FF keen to see the back of our dear former leader. No wonder it’s all smiles and over the top praise from the coalition colleagues. They weren’t asked to do anything particularly unpleasant. How nice.

But it does beg the question, if an accurate read of the situation, what on earth was Ahern thinking about if he genuinely supposed he could slug it out any longer? Could he really be that detached from political (and personal) reality? The idea of term limits springs to mind… at least to allow people some sense of perspective about their own (lack of) centrality to political processes and to give a grateful, but not overly so, nation some respite when things turn nasty.

And as the Phoenix notes:

If the goodbye speeches and plaudits, the national farewell and eulogising of a man who had allegedly conquered the north and the economy, have all seemed a little contrived, it was because this was exactly so. It all served to placate Bertie and to disguise the fact that the was prised out of office with a crowbar by a handful of his cabinet colleagues.