Disastrous day for Bridges

The reaction at the end was telling. As soonto-be-former MP Jami-Lee Ross dropped the mike on his extraordinary rant/ confession/whistle-blowing and walked away from the dais, there was silence and the odd dropping of the jaw. And then someone said it. ‘‘Wow.’’

Wow indeed. For Bridges, his leadership team and the National Party, October 16 will be a date that will live in infamy.

Another date looms. That is the one that will decide who is the next MP for Botany. Ross’ resignation has triggered a by-election process that now must feel like a gun to the head of the party’s current leader and the people he fronts. If Bridges makes it that far.

Ross will stand as an independent. He’s likely to lose, but in the lead-up to the byelection, Bridges’ credibility and his alleged role in claimed corruption and electoral fraud will trump the campaign.

One could add his lack of judgment, given that this incredible moment was delivered in part by the leader himself, as was the knife to a colleague who had clearly lost faith in a former friend.

Bridges says the public will understand that his former chief whip and ‘‘numbers man’’ has been ‘‘lying, leaking and lashing out’’; he believes they will see through the antics of a bitter colleague reacting at his ousting by a ‘‘unanimous’’ caucus.

He has urged his accuser to take his claims to the police as soon as possible, and has used that potential investigation as a reason to not discuss the claims. Again, he says, the public will understand.

Whether or not that is the case will be revealed in an East Auckland suburb on a Saturday in a few weeks. A poor showing by the National candidate and/or the opposite for Bridges’ accuser could spell the end. Again, if Bridges makes it that far.

Gone are the opportunities to wield the might of a large, powerful opposition against the perceived inadequacies of the Government; gone is the oxygen for debate on anything other than police investigations, $100,000 donations and appalling leadership polls; obliterated is any control over the narrative.

The media will not want to hear Bridges’ thoughts on rising petrol rises; they will barely note his latest opinion of the Government’s economic management; and his critique of justice reforms will be swept aside by a greater interest in those MPs who Ross claims are fed up with his leadership, the four (or is it 15?) women claiming Ross harassed them, the mysterious person behind the Cathedral Club, National’s ties to the Exclusive Brethren and Chinese businesses, and the existence and contents of those tape recordings. Any one of those individually would be a mighty challenge to a leader and a party. Delivered together they are potentially a weapon of mass destruction.

And not just for the party’s political leadership. If the extraordinary events of Tuesday, October 16, gave us more questions than answers, one thing is clear: one political career is over.

At least one other hangs in the balance, and the thread is very, very thin.

‘‘Bridges believes the public will see through the antics of a bitter colleague reacting at his ousting by a ‘‘unanimous’’ caucus.’’