FYI

Something I forgot to add.

There's been a bit of gossip around the blogs about why the media chose to run the Brash story. Some are arguing that Labour MPs were hounding the Gallery to encourage them to run with it. Well my Molesworth mole tells me the only senior Labour MP to do the rounds on the Gallery corridor of late was Steve Maharey, and that was on the day Trevor Mallard made the "affair" comment during question time. He was sent down by the 9th floor to see how it gone down with the Gallery .... the response (so I understand) from at least one newsroom, was to tell them to pull their bloody heads in.

Now back to why the Brash story was run. The week before last TVNZ put Helen Clark on the spot on the pre-question time bridge run about the rumours currently doing the rounds about her husband, Peter Davis. As you can imagine it got a very frosty denial.

But what it did result in was an editor of one of the daily papers deciding, that if that question was going to be asked of Clark, then Brash had to be quizzed on the affair allegation. One of his reporters duly did so on the day National was holding its caucus meeting. That saw Dr Brash go back into Caucus and raise the matter as he feared (justifiably) that a story was going to be run, and that he should warn his Party colleagues about it. Rakaia MP Brian Connell then asked if him if the allegation was true ..... and the rest we all know.