The devestating Fran O'Sullivan Column

The doyenne of the right, Fran O'Sullivan says today in her devastating column that "TV3's Duncan Garner indicates his source has said there are more tapes." and that the target is John Key - as that nice Marcus Lush said, "I'm glad a journalist recorded those answers, we should know what we are voting for".

I've read and listened to some arguments that the tapes reveal nothing and that this is a mere media beat up, and I think that is utterly wrong, I think the venerable John Armstrong said it best today...

the tapes of Bill English, Lockwood Smith and Nick Smith capture a mixture of cynicism and arrogance which will make some people seriously doubt the veracity and durability of John Key's assurances that National does not have a secret batch of right-wing policies to be implemented once the party is back in power.

...and in the light of the Hollow Men these Politicians have little political capital to be trusted or believed, watch the clip of Lockwood Smith telling a skinny Lindsey Perigo that he would resign if student fees went up and tell me you trust that bugger not to say one thing and do another?

So
1: Are the tapes doctored?
2: Did Nicky Hagar hack into the National party computer when Don Brash would have his emails printed off for him daily so he could read them at night?
3: Was Labour behind the secret tapings?
4: Was Labour behind the rubbish on John Key's lawn?

These questions however all evaporate when you consider Fran O'Sullivans column today - let's remind ourselves this is Fran o'Fucking-Sullivan here folks, she is not a friend to the left or left wing conspiracy, but she acknowledges the damage the tapes have done and she goes several steps further and I've been waiting for someone to explore it, while some who have defended National have fought to argue the tapes aren't policy, none have dared to bring up what English revealed about his thoughts on Key. O'Sullivan brings up a claim that Key told Journalists that English would roll him for Prime Minister.

It is Key's loose-lipped talk, coupled with the rather too frank comments that English sometimes makes about him, that would have persuaded his opponents that the deputy would be a rich candidate for entrapment. Who can forget his priceless "I'm a stayer, he's a sprinter. I grind away, John just bounces from one cloud to another"?

The English tape is a goldmine. His comments on Working for Families and Kiwibank have given Labour an opening to spin into proof positive that National has a hidden agenda which will result in cutbacks to the tax credits programme and the sale of Kiwibank if it takes office. Key and English had already helped create perceptions of a hidden agenda.

Key's revealing comment in the Weekend Herald's "Unauthorised Biography", where he admitted election policy was held within a tight circle _ "we just can't afford to have an organisation that leaks" _ played into that. So too, English's rather gormless responses when asked for details of economic policy.

But the more damaging factor is the public perception English has created of a less than unified leadership by suggesting Key _ a "nice man" _ doesn't completely understand Working for Families.

Should the question be how far will National's old right front bench allow John Key to moderate with the fish n chip club president Rodger Douglas in the background?