Bertie bows to people's will
Compare, for a moment, Bertie Ahern's views on a unilateral US war against Iraq before and after opinion polls showed support for the Taoiseach at its lowest point since 1997.
Here's what Mr Ahern said on January 29 as he tried desperately to avoid aligning himself with either Europe or the US.
"We would have to revert to the House and the Government would have to make a decision I hope it does not come to that, but we have put contingency arrangements in place."
Yet this week, informed by the latest opinion poll data and a huge protest march, he seemed to have made up his mind.
"America is America. But there are other countries in the world and other points of view and we have a different view."
Yes, yes, it was the same person. But before launching into a criticism of Bertie Ahern's amazing chameleon qualities, there are a few political realities to bear in mind.
Politicians have to tread a fine line between being leaders of the public or being led by public opinion. It's no easy task. Political leaders will always be criticised for whatever approach they take. That's democracy for you.
But there was something more snide and cynical about Mr Ahern's volte-face, which smacked of a two-fingered salute to those who marched in Dublin last Saturday.
The raw anger from the crowd over the Government's failure to say exactly where it stood was palpable as speaker after speaker called on Mr Ahern to express opposition to a US-led war without any UN sanction.
Many of the comments were naive, muddled and ignorant of the realities of international diplomacy. Despite the spluttering articulacyok of some of the speakers, the anger towards the Government's policy was clear.
Instead of acknowledging this resentment this week, Mr Ahern bizarrely sought to turn around the meaning of the protest.
He said they had no quarrel with him and he was "genuinely delighted" at the turnout for the march. In fact, he had privately predicted there would be "an enormous crowd" for the event as people were concerned about the issue. "The people were supporting the position of being anti-war," he said.
It's the kind of stuff you'd expect from a more zany episode of Yes Minister, or a far-fetched installment of Bull Island.
Compare, for example, Mr Ahern's response to the protests to those of British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
The prime minister, not one known to embark on unpopular policies, accepted there was major opposition towards his stance, but explained why he would stand firm.
"There are situations in politics where you have to manoeuvre your way round certain issues, and that is just part of the obvious business of politics," he said.
"But there are certain issues, particularly where they are issues of life and death, where I think your job and your duty as prime minister is to say to people what you honestly think, and then they have got to make up their minds about that, and in the end we are a democracy and people are accountable for that."
The contrast in response is made all the more stark when you realise Mr Ahern and Mr Blair's positions over a likely war are not a million miles apart.
Both have underlined the primacy of the UN's Security Council, both say they would like a peaceful solution if possible, while both have refused to rule out their support for a war without UN sanction.
In reality it seems the reason behind Bertie Ahern's actions are that he badly misread the mood of his own people.
What raised most alarm in Government buildings in recent days was the broad range of people represented in both the street protest and the opinion polls.
They were made up mostly by what commentator Eoghan Harris once described as the Moby Dick vote: ordinary, middle class people who aren't normally moved to march on the streets over an issue.
The polls, for example, showed that voters in every age category, social group and region opposed the current policy of allowing the US military to use Shannon airport.
Bertie Ahern wasn't the only one caught out of step. Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny came out this week to publicly express his support for the march almost one week later.
He explained the absence of any Fine Gael TDs at the protest by saying they had a party conference on the same day. Yet the party did not express any opinion over the protest in advance of the march, unlike Labour, the Greens and Sinn Féin who helped to organise it.
Whatever about the mixed messages from the opposition, the sight of a Government scrambling to jump belatedly onto a bandwagon is never a dignified spectacle.
The frantic attempts to slip into reverse by expressing delight at the size of the protest, claiming the Government is at one with the people, and layering on the pro-UN rhetoric were predictable.
But what Mr Ahern doesn't seem to realise is that such actions are more likely to antagonise rather than appease the people.
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
