Whenever a senior politician is forced out of power, whatever the circumstances, there is always bad blood. And so it was this week. While the Government was publicly blaming the media and the Opposition, and relations with both continue on a new low, its own deputies were blaming each other. Things healed somewhat midweek when Bertie Ahern appointed two new Ministers and Opposition efforts to create cracks in the Coalition failed and were seen to do so when Mary Harney spoke of the need for stability, the trust that existed and the long-term aim. The Ray Burke affair has been the first really serious test of the cohesion of the 100-dayold minority Government. Not only did it survive despite the shock of loosing a Deputy as well as a Minister - a fact the Tanaiste was apprised of when she went to see the Taoiseach in Drumcondra last Monday - it was strengthened. The real damage was done to the Fianna Fail party itself.
When the Arab passports story appeared in The Irish Times on Saturday, FF was furious with both the media for running it and the Opposition for leaking it. It was accepted that Burke would go, although he wasn't being pushed. The PDs pulled Des O'Malley out of RTE's Saturday View as he would have to defend the indefensible. When it emerged over the weekend that the leak could not be laid at the door of the Opposition, FF turned in on itself. Not just over who revealed what but, as one Minister said privately, after all the party had done for him over the years and all he gained from it how could Ray Burke throw in the seat as well?
The by-elections may cause real damage to the Government's strength but apart from the former Minister for Foreign Affairs the real loser this week was the body politic itself. What the two pending tribunals - one on political donations, the other on planning - will reveal is another day's work.