Fianna Fáil Leadership Challenge Underway

hotmail.com · 16-01-2011 08:57PM

Firstly, this is bizarre to have a senior minister serving in the cabinet that has lost confidence in his Taoiseach.

All day tomorrow we're going to have a sea of press statements from FF TDs regarding their intentions. Should be fun.

56lcd · 16-01-2011 09:01PM

Min wrote: »

FF could do with John McGuinness as the new party leader, pity it is only senior ministers who will be taken seriously.

it is best if ff are disbanded and categorised as an illicit organisation

steelcityblues · 16-01-2011 09:12PM

What is it with highly stubborn people and their refusal to admit they did wrong, and still vow to continue on? Even when most others, including 'friends', can see that the person in question needs to bow out.

Find it fascinating, if not a bit scary, to see how people like Cowen operate in the public eye.

FF seem to produce the majority of them too!

yoshytoshy · 16-01-2011 09:16PM

Untold damage is been done to the country by these clowns.

Why the hell was a press conference called ,like the last one called about the imf.
Why not put worldwide ads out ,"Ireland ,basket case"

FloatingVoter · 16-01-2011 09:22PM

My point on Coughlan depended on Cowen being voted down and him resigning as Taoiseach. Even if he were to lose the captainship of the Titanic, he is still PM until a vote of the Dail declares him not to be. Assuming the Greens will be as spineless as ever - I think this is just another storm in a teacup.
A Shakespeare thingy comes to mind "he who wields the knife will never wear the crown" - that quote is all wrong but the sentiment is 10/10 so far.

GSF · 16-01-2011 09:32PM

hotmail.com wrote: »

Firstly, this is bizarre to have a senior minister serving in the cabinet that has lost confidence in his Taoiseach.

you mean openly admitting the fact? There are plenty that speak out of both sides of their mouth.

Panrich · 16-01-2011 09:36PM

I wonder how many people did RTE have to interview for the vox pop to get to the girl who thought Cowen was doing a great job under the circumstances. :eek:

sligopark · 16-01-2011 09:38PM

Panrich wrote: »

I wonder how many people did RTE have to interview for the vox pop to get to the girl who thought Cowen was doing a great job under the circumstances. :eek:

it was an old recording from 2007

goat2 · 16-01-2011 10:16PM

martin would be doing better in not opposing mr cowen, it is too close to election to be changing the head right now, more serious things to worry about,

and anyway by hearing around me the amount of people who voted them in the past and will not be doing so now, they may not be in government after the election

Dyr · 16-01-2011 10:52PM

goat2 wrote: »

martin would be doing better in not opposing mr cowen, it is too close to election to be changing the head right now, more serious things to worry about,

and anyway by hearing around me the amount of people who voted them in the past and will not be doing so now, they may not be in government after the election

I would suggest this is why martin is challenging Cowen. The FF party might want Cowen to lead them into the slaughter of the next GE so they can then rebuild under a new leader who is less tainted. I think Martin and many other senior FF TDs are afraid that their seats and political careers will be history if Cowen is still taoiseach when the voters come to claim their pound of flesh

Byron85 · 17-01-2011 04:21PM

Martin and Cowen are appearing on The Last Word with Mat Cooper, 15 minutes apart, at 4.30. You can listen at the link below.

http://www.todayfm.com/Home.aspx

SB-08 · 17-01-2011 05:16PM

George Hook is grilling Cowen on Newstalk. Cowen coming across very badly. The usual waffle but he is not being let away with it. Martin was far more impressive frankly. Cowen using Leihman Bro as excuse again.. Someone bloody tell him that his hero Patrick Honahan said 75% of the prob is due to domestic problems. :rolleyes:

I expect both Martin and Cowen to be on the 6.1 news - possibly on Frontline too. Only one of them will have the balls to appear on Vinny B tonight though and it certainly won't be Clowen. :cool:

serfboard · 17-01-2011 05:57PM

I'm surprised there's no talk on this thread about the demolition job Seán O'Rourke did on Micheál Martin on The Week In Politics last night. Says Sean to Micheál - "what's all this crap about you not resigning? The message you're sending to people by not resigning is that you're not really serious about this" - or words to that effect.

Made Martin look like a right eejit. Or, to put it another way, a master-stroke by Cowen.

In that one act, of not resigning, and it's subsequent examination by Sean O'Rourke, it looks very much like amateur hour to me.

Martin had to go for it because AFAIR there was polling to suggest that he is in trouble electorally, and it would obviously increase his chances if he were party leader. ("New Fianna Fail", anyone?)

I only saw an extract of Martin's press conference, but the clip from it was about the smoking ban - "I was the first person to introduce a country-wide smoking ban". Yes you were. And fair play to you for it. It was the right thing to do and we'll all be better for it.

The only problem is - what else have you ever done?

InchicoreDude · 17-01-2011 06:08PM

Wow, I wonder was the number of interviews in Martins constituency by Six One news accurate? An awful lot of them didnt seem to like him?

hotmail.com · 17-01-2011 06:14PM

InchicoreDude wrote: »

Wow, I wonder was the number of interviews in Martins constituency by Six One news accurate? An awful lot of them didnt seem to like him?

Not one person under 65 was interviewed - total joke.

gandalf · 17-01-2011 06:53PM

Anyone know what the story is with the injunction taken out by Cowen against the Daily Mail? It is all over Twitter at the moment.....

Are they trying to muzzle the press before the big vote tomorrow?

contrail · 17-01-2011 07:06PM

Micheál Martin is going to save us all! Oh, sorry, that's not right.

Micheál Martin is going to save the country! Oh no, that's not it either.

Micheál Martin is going to save the economy! Nope.

Micheál Martin is going to save Fianna Fáil because the party is in danger of collapse. Christ, his worries are few, and his focus is on his own naval.

At least he'll make sure the taxpayer has another former Fianna Fáil Taoiseach to support before we have a change of government. I suppose he wishes it's himself, if he can complete the pension set before he's forced into retirement he'll have 4 incomes to look forward to.

Let Fianna Fáil collapse Micheál, it's called progress...

Sulmac · 17-01-2011 07:34PM

gandalf wrote: »

Anyone know what the story is with the injunction taken out by Cowen against the Daily Mail? It is all over Twitter at the moment.....

Are they trying to muzzle the press before the big vote tomorrow?

So much for freedom of the press. :rolleyes:

darkman2 · 17-01-2011 07:37PM

Mary Hanafin on the Frontline tonight on RTE @ 9.35. She will have to nail her colours over the FF leadership. I take it she has tendered her resignation and that it has not been accepted;)

hotmail.com · 17-01-2011 07:54PM

gandalf wrote: »

Anyone know what the story is with the injunction taken out by Cowen against the Daily Mail? It is all over Twitter at the moment.....

Are they trying to muzzle the press before the big vote tomorrow?

Post the twitter comments, sounds interesting!

ebbsy · 17-01-2011 07:58PM

PP are offering 3/1 that it will be NO tomorrow.

Any takers ?

Beau · 17-01-2011 08:06PM

Thought Cowen was very good on Today FM to be honest.

Not that it matters, wont be voting FF no matter what. The time for a change came a long time ago.

Shea O'Meara · 17-01-2011 08:07PM

So the Liar Willie O'Dea is going to vote against Cowen.
O'Dea can smell a come back on the wind.
These rats have no loyalty, not even to each other. Save your own skin and keep the party ticking.
Watch as they re-write the last seven or eight years as all down to Cowen. Like he worked in a vacuum.
And it'll work too.

Prepare for the dusting off of old chestnuts such as;
'That was then, this is now!'
'We can't dwell on the past, we need to move on!'
'We've cleaned house!'

...how many more 'new' or 'cleaned' FFail's do we have to suffer?

Sierra Oscar · 17-01-2011 08:09PM

According to Conor Lenihan, Cowen is a dead man walking.

The Volt · 17-01-2011 08:16PM

Sierra Oscar wrote: »

According to Conor Lenihan, Cowen is a dead man walking.

Source?

Mr.Micro · 17-01-2011 08:16PM

I think that Cowen will survive to morrow and Martin is just he catalyst. He is not much better than Biffo slightly more cultured, slick and sneery. It will be at a later stage when the election is called that the leadership will be contested, but Biffo is not done yet IMO.

Shea O'Meara · 17-01-2011 08:17PM

Sierra Oscar wrote: »

According to Conor Lenihan, Cowen is a dead man walking.

He, (C. Lenihan) is a great example of a gaff prone non-entity we also need rid of.

hotmail.com · 17-01-2011 08:21PM

Sierra Oscar wrote: »

According to Conor Lenihan, Cowen is a dead man walking.

Source?

Sierra Oscar · 17-01-2011 08:25PM

hotmail.com wrote: »

Source?

http://twitter.com/ConorLenihanTD

hotmail.com · 17-01-2011 08:28PM

Sierra Oscar wrote: »

http://twitter.com/ConorLenihanTD

Does he know something we don't...More revelations in tomorrow's Daily Mail perhaps.

Fianna Fáil Leadership Challenge Underway

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