John McGuinness goes down kicking and screaming

John MCGuinness took his demotion to the back benches in a manner that makes all other parties pause in there poll support. The dynamic of Fianna Fail behaving as it’s own opposition kicked in almost immediately as McGuinness went on The Last Word Wednesday evening to defend his attack on the public service.

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As the days go on though the attacks become more pointed and more in tube with narratives outside Fianna Fail circles. Yesterday he took a large swipe at the leadership style of Cowen and his two musketeers Coughlan and Lenihan. His criticis would have a lot more weigh if it didn’t smack of sour grapes. Yes he spoke out once or twice from the Dept of Enterprise but the worst reflection on the leadership was making “a bags” of the budget.

“I think he has to come out of the old tribal mode that is Fianna Fáil. He has to reach out beyond that and listen to his parliamentary party once more and giving action to the voice of the issues that they raise. That entails coming out of a comfort zone.”

Of course the dynamic of internal opposition is a vvital element of survival that Fianna Fail make consistent use of sucking the air out of political debate and securing votes at election time. McGuinness talked himself out of another promotion any time soon despite being one of the few ministers who (even if wrong) provided value in a willingness to publicly engage with policy problems and not always toe the line.

“I think that people are asking more of him. I think the parliamentary party in general would be asking more of him,” he said.

He said the country needed a “new dynamic leadership” that was not afraid of challenging the status quo, or not afraid of new opinion, and that was willing to challenge itself each day.

He was a poster boy in the halls of the Sunday Independent for his “golden cages” comments about the public service.  Those comments were defended as part of a politicians duty to consider all options and think outside the received wisdom, a notable intent if it were true.

Yet the demotion brought out the mutterings about Cowens leadership and counter spin about how dificult he was to deal with in the department. I’m not surprised that Coughlan’s approach (sic) would annoy him.

Back to my point – McGuinness does his brother now harm by going down spitting. He carries on an FF tradition that let’s the knock on doors with some credibilty.

Of course there could be local dynamics at play as McGuinness’ son goes for re-election to Kilkenny city council and his brother also seeks a seat in opposition to his ‘tunnel-vision’ brother (do pass on any interesting info to the email). Accusations by his brother than McGuinness is asleep at the wheel will not have hurt as much as losing one’s post. We can expect to see more from this as we get to June.

Speaking of door knocking, independent government support Jackie Healy-Rae and our pal Michael Lowrey missed the vote on the social welfare bonus yesterday. Lowery was at Moriarty but what about our esteemed Kerry colleague? And who was also missing? You guessed it.

Government Chief Whip Pat Carey confirmed last night that Mr McGuinness was absent without notice for the two Dáil votes yesterday, one of which related to the removal of the Christmas bonus for social welfare recipients. A spokesman said that Mr Carey would speak to Mr McGuinness about his absence next week.