Michéal Martin takes on Cowen - to be commended ? Brave or foolish ?

[orangeman]

Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin has said Fianna Fáil should change its leader before the General Election.

He said he has offered his resignation to the Taoiseach Brian Cowen. His resignation has not been accepted.

Speaking to the media this evening, he said that throughout his time as a Minister he has given his views in an honest open way.

He said that he has reluctantly concluded that Fianna Fáil should change its leader before the General Election.

He welcomed the Taoiseach's announcement this evening to table a vote of confidence in his leadership.

However, he said he will be voting against the vote of confidence and has offered his resignation to the Taoiseach.

He said the continuing decline of the party was a reason for his offering his resignation. Latest opinion polls, resignations post Christmas and the absence of direction of late has led him to the move. He said 'survival of the party is at stake'.

He said low morale within the party and unhappiness amongst the public was also a reason.

[Bogball XV]

dunno why the former future leader of FF would really want to be the future leader of FF, at least now - it's like Willie Hague, I could never understand why he took the job when he did, there was little to gain.  I don't think FF will be electable for at least two general elections (now that might not take too much time).
Personally I don't like the man, he's even more arrogant than most FFers, he's not going to bring anything new to the table, I suppose he reckons he needs the party leader's allowance to make up for the shortfall in income by not resigning?

[mayogodhelpus@gmail.com]

The whiley Mayoman Pat Rabbitte hit the nail on the head during the week. He reckons that there is no point from a FF point of view in challenging Cowan in a leadership challenge now. Instead in typical FF style they will try and give an impression of potential next leader without having failed in a challenge, hopefully increasing their chances of re-election. This will also act as a shield to try and distance himself from Fianna Fáil, which is a joke as all current FF Ministers & T.D.'s share the guilt of the Fianna Fáíl party.

[Denn Forever]

I see Baby Doc is going back to Haiti.

Will see a push to get Bertie back in charge of FF?

[Shamrock Shore]

Martin has made a complete balls of this. Makes Richard Bruton's attempt to oust Enda look professional. If you offer your resignation you have to insist it's accepted FFS. At least the likes of Albert and (God forgive me) Pee Flynn had the courage of their convictions back in the early 90s when they opposed CJ.

Mary Hanafin has 24 hours to save her seat here in Dun Laoghaire. If she doesn't come out agin Cowen she is finished and the watery Barry Andrews will get the sole FF seat (prob on the last count).

[Tubberman]

Willie O'Dea on News at One confirming that he will be voting against the motion of confidence in Cowen.
Minister for Agriculture Brendan Smith confirming that will be voting for the motion of confidence.

Of those who have come out publicly so far, there is still a lot more backing Cowen than against him.

[Bogball XV]

Heard Prof John Crown on the radio this morning, he reckons Martin was the worst Health Minister he has experienced and Harney the best (but he did say that the bar was extremely low), he talked a lot of sense I thought, very impressive.

He said Martin was worse even than Cowen, that Martin's response to everything to was to set up a committee to investigate the issue, thus puching it down the road for another minister to have to make a decision on.  He did commend him on the smoking ban though.

[An Gaeilgoir]

Willie O'Dea on News at One confirming that he will be voting against the motion of confidence in Cowen.
Minister for Agriculture Brendan Smith confirming that will be voting for the motion of confidence.

Of those who have come out publicly so far, there is still a lot more backing Cowen than against him.

Its easy to say it in public, but with a private ballot, i'm sure a few will switch. I have met Martin a couple of times through work and i have to say what an under-whelming experience, i dont think he is the man FF are looking for. As for not resigning from the cabinet, he is f****d. I think Mary Hanifin is the one to watch here, especially after the election. Who better to lead FF that a conservative catholic, sure she might get the church back in to the tent with her instead of the builders. They still have plenty of money and land!!

[seafoid]

FF lost whatever veneer of competence they might have had in November over one week when Mary Hanafin said she gave assurance about there being no bailout without having been briefed and then blamed it on jetlag, Dick Roche told Prime Time "but without the guarantee we'd be in an awful state now, Miriam",  Pat Carey got bitchslapped on live TV by Pat Rabbitte , Baz Andrews defended the bailout and the protection of bondholders as in the best interest of the taxpayer  and Tony Killeen lost his cool with Fintan O Toole in front of the nation.     And where were the senior ministers? Nowhere to be seen. 

Who cares who leads FF from now on? The party has failed the people.

[barelegs]

Martin (and the other aspiring Fianna Fáil leaders) haven't shown themselves up in a terribly good light during this. They've shown themselves to be weak and indecisive. It looks like Cowen will pull through tomorrow but the damage to Fianna Fáil has already been done.

In many respects the biggest problem for the aspiring leaders will be getting re-elected. Martin in on shaky ground in Cork South Central, Hanifan on shaky ground in Dun Laoghaire and Lenihan fighting for a seat in a strong field in Dublin West. O Cuiv is the only one who would appear safe and he's a Cowen loyalist (ie won't stick the knife in but interested in the job). Indeed in listening to a relatively influential Fianna Fáiler the other day he seemed to think that O Cuiv could be kingmaker and that he was very influential within the party.

As regards taking the Fianna Fáil job on now, it could be argued that you couldn't be taking over at a better time. Enda Kenny took over from Michael Noonan in 2002 when Fine Gael were threatened by extinction and re-built the party. Whether he's the best option as leader now is irrelevent he's looking increasingly like the next Taoiseach. Fianna Fáil need someone now that wants to rebuild their organisation from the ground up. Get rid of the paper cumann and start again from scratch. Too long in government has set their organisation back years

[Main Street]

 Cowen is trying to imitate Mussolini, albeit some deranged barstool version. FF are between a rock and a hard place. Probably will end up with a litter of ineffectual party leaders like Martin.

[seafoid]

Save the names and pictures before they disappear from irish politics forever

http://www.fiannafail.ie/people/listing/

[ardal]

I think we'll all be surprised at how well the party does in the next general election; they'll not win, but niether wiped out. Martin may have been part of a pre-election campaign? Who shot JFK?

[magpie seanie]

FF lost whatever veneer of competence they might have had in November over one week when Mary Hanafin said she gave assurance about there being no bailout without having been briefed and then blamed it on jetlag, Dick Roche told Prime Time "but without the guarantee we'd be in an awful state now, Miriam",  Pat Carey got bitchslapped on live TV by Pat Rabbitte , Baz Andrews defended the bailout and the protection of bondholders as in the best interest of the taxpayer  and Tony Killeen lost his cool with Fintan O Toole in front of the nation.     And where were the senior ministers? Nowhere to be seen. 

Who cares who leads FF from now on? The party has failed the people.

That's it in a nutshell. It should be wound up.

[muppet]

These battles are marathons, not sprints. Way to early to call it at the moment.

I expect Martin to resign as Minister this week though one way or another.