Herr McDowell succumbs to dictates of reason
Bertie (when he was on the other side in 2002) was a Ceaucescu-like despot with his Bertie Bowl. Daily Ireland was likened to the Volkischer Beobachter, Hitler’s fanzine.
The Irish Examiner became Uncle Joe’s Pravda for challenging an anti-Sinn Féin rant of Mr McDowell.
Then Richard Bruton was slurred as the Joseph Goebbels of Irish politics.
When you think of historical figures to compare to Bruton, you think of the likes of Jimmy Stewart. A decent and courteous man, as a propagandist he is to Goebbels what Brian Kennedy is to Beethoven.
If you were to be vicious about it, the only person in the Dáil capable of such outrageous and vitriolic propaganda is, em, himself, the ubermeister of hype.
But Bad Cop McDowell had been replaced by Good Cop McDowell yesterday.
His abject apology on Morning Ireland yesterday deflated what was shaping up to be - to employ the jargon of another nasty dictator - the mother of all battles in the Dáil.
As it was, the exchanges in the Dáil yesterday had all the excitement of a League of Ireland goalless draw on a drizzly day in November.
Mr McDowell was on his best behaviour. He crossed the chamber to shake hands with a gracious Richard Bruton. He even withdrew (quietly) the over-the-top sledging he gave the Green Party last week, when he had alleged some of its supporters may have attacked the PD headquarters during the Dublin riots.
The badgering was left to Bertie Ahern and opposition leaders Enda Kenny and Pat Rabbitte. It boiled down to a dour exchange of statistics about how many gardaí are on the streets of Dublin and who’s winning the battle against crime.
Mr McDowell had blown out his own storm. He admitted he was thin-skinned.
But the epidermis was thick enough to laugh heartily when Joe Higgins suggested that, given the mad, bad performance of the day before, he had made a mistake when getting rid of the last padded cell in Mountjoy.
