Shatter’s smugtastic, sinister and sorry saga

Justice Minister Alan Shatter seems to only have three levels of public persona; smug; very smug; and smugtastic.

The minister had been in merely smug mode when he decided to disclose on live TV that anti-penalty point waiver campaigner Mick Wallace had penalty points waived at the roadside — but Mr Shatter ratcheted himself up to smugtastic by the time he finally confronted the political firestorm engulfing him following that crude attempt to discredit a political opponent with official information supplied by gardaí.

Fittingly, the Justice Minister’s back was against the wall as he faced a media scrum in a small, stuffy room at the National Convention Centre, but rather than hold his hands up to a rather grubby smear attempt, Mr Shatter decided to use those hands to grab a metaphorical shovel and start digging an even deeper hole for himself.