Cowen takes a personal question, so why not put it to Kenny too?

Should we follow the American model of requiring the president to sit regular medical tests and of releasing the results? The BBC’s Jeremy Paxman was vilified in 2002 for asking Charles Kennedy on Newsnight what were pertinent questions about his drinking

SOMEBODY is going to have to ask Enda Kenny publicly about his drinking. That’s only fair now that Taoiseach Brian Cowen has been asked about his propensity to have a pint or two. Balance demands that if the man who holds the most important political office in the country had to answer this question – first to a reporter from the Sunday Independent and then live on last Friday’s Late Late Show to Ryan Tubridy – then the man who hopes to take the job from him should do so too.

Fine Gael might consider that a bit unfair. After all, Kenny is not beset by rumours about his drinking and how it is affecting him. Like it or not, Cowen has been dogged by such speculation and a boil had developed that needed to be lanced. Cowen, like many other Irishmen, likes his few pints and, on occasion, another couple. He did so particularly when he was younger (and I have personal experience of it) and early photos of him on his elevation to leader of Fianna Fáil (and Taoiseach) showed him downing a pint of stout lustily in front of adoring Offaly crowds.