McDowell’s past behaviour may now come back to haunt him

BERTIE Ahern said it was only “with the benefit of hindsight” that he realised his “misjudgement” in accepting money from friends.

He was the most out of pocket in having to pay some €90,000, but the biggest political loser this week was Michael McDowell who became a victim of his own double standards.

The Taoiseach noted how he had earlier been victimised by scurrilous financial rumours that he demonstrated were untrue. US President Lyndon Johnson used to tell the story of the Texas politician who told his aides to spread the rumour that his opponent was having sex with a pig.

“Ah”, one of aides said, “nobody would believe that”.

“I know”, Johnson replied, “but we might get the son of a bitch to deny it”.

A denial in that case would have been more damaging than the rumour. All too often people have such a low opinion of the honesty of politicians that once one denies something, some people immediately assume they are lying and are therefore guilty of whatever they deny. When it comes to money matters, most people probably remember the denials of Ray Burke, which were trotted out again in the Dáil this week.

“I have done nothing illegal, unethical or improper”, Burke told the Dáil on September 10, 1997.

Didn’t that sound familiar this week? Some years ago there were some particularly nasty rumours about Bertie Ahern that no newspaper dared to publish. It was suggested that he was handy with his fists and that he used to beat up his wife and Celia Larkin. There was no truth whatever to the stories, but it was a fact that the rumours existed.

Geraldine Kennedy did more than anybody I know to kill those scurrilous rumours. She had access to documents that demonstrated there was no truth whatever to the stories. She assured media contacts that people who knew the Taoiseach well emphasised that such behaviour would have been totally out of character.

It is important to mention that in fairness to all concerned. It is a reality of political life that any denial by Bertie of those unfounded rumours would lend credence to the sordid stories in some twisted minds. Maybe those who were responsible for the unfounded rumours about the Taoiseach’s pugilistic prowess were, like the Texas politician, just trying to get him to deny them.

Fergus Finlay wrote about similar nasty rumours while working for the Labour Party. He dealt with some of those totally unfounded rumours in his book, Snakes and Ladders. During the 1997 general election campaign, Tánaiste Dick Spring’s mother-in-law came over from Virginia to look after the house. When she was returning to America after the election, Kristi Spring went to see her mother off at the airport. Kristi had her children with her.

Immediately afterwards there was a ridiculous rumour around Dublin that she was stopped trying to leave the country with the kids.

The whole thing was so absurd that it would have been laughable if it were not so painful for victims of such rumours. They were probably started deliberately.

“I lost track of the number of apologetic media phone calls I got based on spurious sightings of Kristi at Shannon Airport,” Fergus Finlay noted.

Political reporters have to work every day with the people they are writing about. They have a duty to write without fear or favour. That often means writing critical pieces about people who had, in other circumstances, been helpful.

There has been a lot of talk in recent days about head-hunting. Michael McDowell protested last week that he has “an abhorrence of heads on plates”. He added: “That also goes for delivering my own head on a plate”.

No doubt, with age, he has begun to appreciate the old adage that those who live by the sword die by the sword.

Michael McDowell has probably been one of the greatest head-hunters in the history of Dáil Éireann. He was vocal in calling for the heads of Brian Lenihan, Charlie Haughey and Albert Reynolds, along with other second-line fodder like Ray Burke and Jim McDaid. He has the biggest figurative trophy cabinet in Leinster House.

When it came to calling for heads, Bertie Ahern was only in the halfpenny place. Over the years when opponents got into political trouble, Bertie would call for an explanation rather than a head. He was usually restrained, such as when Bobby Molloy got involved in controversy over intervening with the judiciary in a particularly sordid incestuous rape case involving one of his constituents.

BOBBY had to go, but Bertie did not call for his head on a plate, which he knew was what the PDs would have done if Bobby were from another party.

“I don’t agree with that”, Bertie said. “A person is entitled to a bit of space. I just hope that every politician elected in Dáil Éireann can be absolutely certain that they deal with all of their correspondence and all their issues in a perfect way”, he added. “I am delighted to know that all of them are so perfect because I certainly am not that perfect”.

Politicians are people, and, as the Taoiseach told the Dáil on Tuesday, “no one is infallible or perfect”. Unfortunately, some people will think the political message of this week is that — notwithstanding the fall from grace of Charles Haughey, Ray Burke and company — it is permissible for ministers to accept gifts of money from people. In fairness, unlike all of the others, Bertie has paid back the money.

Some deputies recognise that McDowell adopted one standard in opposition and another in government. They ask how he would have behaved if he were in opposition at the moment.

There was an incident that gives some insight into his likely behaviour. It was a question of an indirect loan involving then Taoiseach Albert Reynolds, who was backed by Tánaiste Dick Spring.

“Two non-residents, through an intermediary, made a largely gratuitous non-commercial loan of more than £1 million to a company in which the Taoiseach was the major shareholder and were granted Irish citizenship in a process which completely departed from the purpose and criteria laid down in the business migration scheme”, Michael McDowell told the Dáil on July 1, 1994.

“The Tánaiste has claimed that an examination of the files has shown that there was nothing improper as if the files would contain something which would prove the obvious impropriety of what happened”, McDowell continued. “He cannot seriously survey the facts I mentioned and say that what happened was proper. If he reflected on the matter he would see there has been a highly improper abuse of public office to financially benefit a member of the Government. The Tánaiste’s critical faculties are not normally so defective as to prevent him seeing the obvious truth of the situation.

“If the Tánaiste takes the view that there was nothing untoward in what happened it follows that it is his view that this transaction could be repeated to enrich members of the Government and nothing should be said against it. If the Tánaiste can see nothing untoward in all of this he is fairly, and not abusively, described as morally brain dead”.

Pray tell us, Michael, how you think you should fairly describe your own behaviour this week? Of course, his real problem may not be his current conduct so much as his past behaviour coming back to haunt him. As Bertie says, nobody is perfect.