Fianna Fail and the Progressive Democrats circled the wagons at Leinster House yesterday. They were separate circles, but they were close enough to offer one another covering fire if the Opposition "injuns" looked like overrunning the Coalition camp.
Nobody doubted they were in deep trouble; most of it of their own making, but they could win through to safety if they held their heads and stuck together. With a Labour Party motion of no confidence coming down the line in the Dail, Mary Harney and Bertie Ahern made common cause and rallied their followers.
Fianna Fail was spinning so fast it could give lessons to whirling dervishes, and the action took place on a variety of fronts. The immediate task was to defuse the threat posed by the allegation that the party had withheld information from the Moriarty tribunal. In such circumstances, con fusion can be a useful weapon.
Fianna Fail's lawyers got dug in. After an hour's legal argument, John Coughlan, the tribunal's lawyer, modified his original statement. There was no withdrawal of the charge that by withholding certain information until last week Fianna Fail had not fully co-operated with the tribunal. Instead, we had a redefinition of the document at the heart of the charge.
A "separate list" of donors became an "extract", but the information it contained, with supporting documentation, was the key to identifying major donors. As Sean Fleming, the party's former financial controller, admitted yesterday: without the "extract", the tribunal would not have been able to make full sense of the list of donors it had received.
When the Taoiseach went to rally his backbenchers at Leinster House, however, he made a fuss about the so-called tribunal climbdown. He emphasised Mr Justice Moriarty was fully satisfied with the co-operation being provided by Fianna Fail. It was a neat move. It reassured TDs and senators and it teed the party up for tomorrow's Dail vote of no confidence. It also confused the co-operation issue.
Two days ago, the tribunal was happy with Fianna Fail's co-operation, but that co-operation had only followed last Thursday's exposure by Ursula Halligan of the £100,000 Mark Kavanagh donation to Charlie Haughey in 1989. Before that, Fianna Fail had not told the tribunal about the payment, even though irregularities had led to an investigation in 1996. The tribunal's satisfaction with Fianna Fail's co-operation yesterday represented no change from Tuesday.
That wasn't how the Government presented it. Michael Smith joined his ministerial colleague, Jim McDaid, in blaming the media for the party's difficulties. There was clearly a conspiracy of some kind at work, according to the two men. The Minister for Defence jumped the tracks when he blamed the Moriarty tribunal for the current mess. "Anything they missed was their fault," Mr Smith declared bluntly.
Given that the Taoiseach had advised the Dail that "any tribunal of inquiry should be entitled to have all relevant information, documentation and co-operation . . . and that total and full disclosure was critical", his comments were ill-judged.
Mr Ahern was fighting to rally his parliamentary party on more than one front. There was the ongoing shambles of the Hugh O'Flaherty nomination and there was the collapse of the party's vote in Tipperary South.
To an extent, one issue cancel led out the other. Few in the party were happy about the O'Flaherty nomination, but they were stuck with it. The six backbenchers who had gone public with their opposition had already been "interviewed" by party chairman Dr Rory O'Hanlon - and no bedside charm had been displayed. The rest of the party was told to stay away from the media because it only brought trouble.
As for the Tipperary South result, it was a warning of what could happen if they didn't work harder and pull together. The bottom line was that nobody wanted a general election.
Having avoided the media for days, following Judge Kevin Haugh's damaging ruling in the Charlie Haughey case, the Tanaiste decided to face up to them. There was no way, she told assembled journos, that she would allow Ruairi Quinn to hound her out of politics with a motion of no confidence. The man who had supported a shameful tax amnesty wasn't going to lecture her on correct behaviour.
That said, Ms Harney declined to comment directly on the Hugh O'Flaherty affair, but she brought further grief on herself by denying she had said the matter would be forgotten in three months. All she wanted was a fair deal from the media, she intoned.
Within an hour, RTE was playing a tape containing the complained-of words.
That was the light relief. Elsewhere, Mark Kavanagh continued the work of Frank Dunlop by calling a spade a spade in terms of political payments. Mr Kavanagh made a hard-headed business decision to protect his IFSC investments by paying £100,000 to Mr Haughey. Mr Dunlop had made smaller donations to encourage particular voting patterns.
That may all change in the future. To complement the Taoiseach's visit to the Moriarty tribunal this morning, the Government will finally publish its Standards in Public Office Bill. After three years of gestation, the timing could hardly be better.
The promise to clean up public life will sound a positive note as the Dail rises for the summer.