Clark gets Serious

At first glance the Prime Ministers allegation that the Serious Fraud Office is in league with the National Party – for which she has not a shred of proof – suggests that she has joined her former foreign minister for a stroll in the gloomy sunless woods of paranoid delusion. From NZPA:

Prime Minister Helen Clark said today it was “almost certain” National knew the announcement was going to be made last Thursday, the day after party leader John Key said he would not work with NZ First leader Winston Peters after the election.

“I find the National Party’s statement and timing interesting because I would say it’s almost certain they got a tip from the Serious Fraud Office that it was about to move,” Miss Clark said on TV One’s Breakfast programme.

I don’t think the PM is losing it – I think she’s partly throwing shit in the hope that some of it sticks but I also think Clark assumes that the SFO staff abuse their authority to empower their friends and destroy their enemies through leaks and political theater because that’s what she would do if she ran the department. The notion that these public servants carry out their investigations with integrity and diligence without turning them into a savage partisan farce is simply unimaginable to her.