Oooops, he did it again ...

Victor

OK, all is fair in love a war, but isn't this getting a bit out of hand?

http://home.eircom.net/content/irelandcom/breaking/9316498?view=Eircomnet

Greens angry over 'fascist' remark
From:ireland.com
Thursday, 16th November, 2006

The Green Party has called on Tánaiste Michael McDowell to withdraw marks made in the Dáil today in which he accused the Green Party chairman John Gormley of "behaving like a fascist".

Green Party whip Dan Boyle said: "In exchanges this morning, Deputy Gormley said that in allocating tax breaks for private nursing homes the Government was putting profit before people.

"Mr McDowell said that Deputy Gormley was 'blinded by ideology and should stop behaving like a fascist'."

Mr Boyle said he will raise the issue of Mr McDowell's comments with the Ceann Comhairle and request that the Committee on Procedure and Privileges convene to discuss the issue as a matter of urgency.

"This is not the first time that Minister McDowell has used the privilege of the Dáil to make slanderous remarks about my colleague.

"In March this year the Minister said that Deputy Gormley's 'type of people' has ransacked the Progressive Democrats' head office, a remark for which he refused to apologise and only very reluctantly withdrew. This morning's remark is further evidence that the Tánaiste is a loose cannon and has little respect for the conventions of the House.

"This is a Minister who accused another colleague of behaving like Joseph Goebbels, another infamous fascist figure. The Tánaiste has apparently learned nothing from that particular episode and feels that he can insult with total impunity," Mr Boyle said.

"The Minister must withdraw this remark without delay. His behaviour sets a very low standard for debate in Dáil Éireann," Mr Boyle added.

Mr McDowell, who lost his Dáil seat to the Green Party's John Gormley after a lengthy recount in the 1997 general election, has a history of spats with his now constituency colleague.

In March this year, he withdrew his remark that Mr Gormley's "type of people" had been responsible for attacking the Progressive Democrats' headquarters during the riots at the "Love Ulster" parade. He withdrew the allegation on RTÉ radio and later shook Mr Gormley's hand in the Dáil chamber.

However, Mr Gormley later accused Mr McDowell of effectively "repeating the smear" and of attempting to make the same claim on RTÉ's Prime Timeprogramme just hours after his withdrawal.

constitutionus

you know if i was in the greens or sinn fein i'd be loving this. mickey Ds obviously terrified of these parties and their prospects in the next election. its not like he's slagging off enda and pat like this so the only natural conclusion is he see's them as the true oppositon and as a result a threat. he's probably still smarting from the O'Gorman poll result in wexford. that and its patently a case of projection on his part, just look how he runs his brief

mike65

Frankly you're not worth a damn in politics until McDowell has labeled you a facist.

Mike.

flogen

mike65 wrote:

Frankly you're not worth a damn in politics until McDowell has labeled you a facist.

Mike.

From what I've seen, being on the receiving end of McDowell's scorn is a good sign that you're doing something right, anyway.

Nuttzz

constitutionus wrote:

mickey Ds obviously terrified of these parties

Gromley terrifies me too as these links below show

John Gromley
http://www.the11thhour.com/archives/112000/features/images/vampires02.jpg

Dracula
http://www.rte.ie/news/2001/0922/gormleyj.jpg

Chakar

While I really don't like the Green party's policies and ideology, politics is all about competition and given that theres a general election next year I would say tensions are running high in the Dail especially among the opposition parties.:)

First of all what was the context of McDowell's comments? What was Gormley talking about?

cast_iron

Chakar wrote:

First of all what was the context of McDowell's comments? What was Gormley talking about?

It's stated in the OP by Victor.

Though personally I would rather see the full interchange between them to get a proper overview of the context.

Victor

Its in the Order of Business here: http://debates.oireachtas.ie/DDebate.aspx?F=DAL20061116.xml&Node=H4#H4