If anyone is qualified to write about ‘Dirty Politics’ it should be me as according to Mainstream media and all the left-wing blogs I am married to the king of ‘Dirty Politics’. I married into a political family and it has been a fascinating journey where I have learned so much about political strategy and those who see politics as a game to be played with skill and who enjoy the rough and tumble in the same way that some people enjoy sport.
It is certainly not a game for the faint-hearted as when it comes to ‘Dirty politics’ AKA bog standard garden variety politics even your own team members can and will throw you under the bus if it suits their agenda or saves their skin. John Key was called the ‘Smiling Assassin’ by National party members as much as he was by his political opponents for that very reason.
When I was still in my twenties I remember conversations where the discussion was centred on whether or not to fight fire with fire. Many older heads were squeamish and did not want to play that game even though they were getting thrashed because that was the game the opposition was playing.
All political parties use the media to further their agenda as mainstream media before the advent of blogs and other online New Media were the main way to get their ideas in front of the public. If you had a friendly journalist then, of course, you would feed them tidbits that would give them a scoop while at the same time getting the message that you wanted out there.
It was a symbiotic relationship as journalists needed the scoops as much as politicians needed the exposure. An opinion piece by HDPA yesterday claimed that National has a history of playing ‘dirty politics.’ I find her statement very amusing since political parties all play the same game it’s just that some are better at it than others and some get caught at it and some don’t.
I’ve no appetite for the dirty politics that the National Party plays. In my time working in and around the press gallery in Wellington, in my opinion, there was no party prepared to stoop to the levels the Nats were to ruin someone’s reputation
She has a point there. During one campaign to select a National party president that I was privy to one of the people running spread a rumour that another contender had split up from his or her spouse and was going to get divorced. When this particular rumour finally made its way to the person being slandered they were shocked as they had been and still were happily married to their spouse.
Too often they made things personal.
Did the National party leak Winston Peters’ superannuation details? In my opinion, yes.
I one hundred percent agree with HDPA on this. It was a hit job, no two ways about it and considering that it could have only been revealed by one of two people, it was a very poorly executed hit job.
The reason I say that is because in the weeks before the leak, I was told by the Nats that the nats had the information. They told me they were considering leaking it. They told me how they would leak it, the process they would follow to cover their tracks. Without going into details, I can tell you that’s exactly how it played out.
Sounds like amateur hour to me. Fancy telling your plans to the media.
[…] The Nats on Winston Peters: they leaked this, in my opinion, to try to take him out of contention at the last election.
I accept that politics is rough and brutal, but it doesn’t have to ruin lives and reputations.
The problem for the Nats is that this is becoming a branding issue. ‘Dirty politics’ is a label more likely to stick to them than any other party in Parliament. And it’s going to be used against them.
Nicky Hager’s book is responsible for that branding and it has been very effectively used as a stick to hit the Nats over the head with. It was an attempt to take out a powerful media influencer that Hager saw as an ally of the National party. Labour wasn’t upset that National had an ally they were upset that their left-wing ally blogs didn’t have the same reach, contacts or audience. National of course when the going got tough did what they always do. They threw their ally under the bus which is standard National party tactics when a person is seen to have become a liability rather than an asset.
The Labour party, in contrast, treat their discards far better, which is one of their few saving graces. They will throw people under the bus but afterwards, they usually take them to hospital and arrange for a nice job somewhere else once the blood has been washed off the road and the story is out of the headlines. National, on the other hand, ask their politicians to fall on their swords for the good of the party, promise to take care of them and then once the deed is done stop answering their phone calls.
[…] Do I think the Nats have changed their ways? No. They’ve just appointed Paula Bennett to campaign chair, the same Bennett who revealed Ross’ affair. She’s running next year’s campaign: what does that tell you about what to expect?
So don’t blame Winston for going after the Nats on the superannuation leak. Wouldn’t you if you were the victim of a leak like that? And as I said, he’s doing us a favour, because he’s firing a warning shot about a grubby and unwelcome style of politics.
newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/heather-du-plessis-allan-drive/opinion/heather-du-plessis-allan-national-party-has-a-history-of-deploying-dirty-politics