MEDIA WATCH: To shaft or not to shaft, asks Deaglán de Bréadún
The word "shaft" is variously explained in dictionaries as a noun meaning "mine-shaft" or "arrow". But "shaft" is a verb in Irish politics and there's no doubt the arrows are out in Laois-Offaly, judging from the Leinster Express headline, "FF out to shaft Parlon".
No prisoners are being taken in the epic battle of the Soldiers of Destiny under Brian Cowen against the Progressive Democrat neophyte and former farmers' leader, Tom Parlon. The constituency is a five-seater and Fianna Fáil currently holds three of them.
"All political posturing went out the window in Portarlington this week when over 400 FF supporters were warned that Parlon posed a real threat to their third Laois-Offaly seat and their ambitions to form the next government," writes Express reporter John Whelan.
"In a direct affront to the party's publicly-stated policy of a vote transfer pact with the Progressive Democrats, delegates packed into the GAA centre in the Fianna Fáil stronghold were directed to omit Parlon from their ballot papers."
Taking a break from his schedule of visits to Brussels, Washington and the UN Security Council, the Minister for Foreign Affairs told the Offaly faithful that the election was not "a beauty contest".
On what was clearly not a night for political ecumenism, the paper describes Mr Cowen's "infectious passion and conviction sending the audience to their feet for an enthusiastic standing ovation".
An election mystery is highlighted, meanwhile, in the Kerryman. The paper's leader-writer is concerned at the strange disappearance of certain key political issues.
They include: political corruption; the Nice Treaty; the rise of right-wing parties throughout Europe. "This is the perfect time to discuss all political issues and it certainly is apposite to trash out the Nice debate."
The writer wonders if people are being "duped by politicians who are not interested in political debate".
The Tuam Herald claims to have identified the true cause of youthful alienation from politics. "So-called youth culture is infantile, selfish and deeply indifferent to anything outside its own narrow preoccupations."
But let these selfish young hedonists beware, the Herald warns, because the next government may be making "huge economic decisions" and, if you don't vote, you can't complain.
The regional newspapers are generally reluctant to endorse any particular party at this stage but it is hard to disagree with the Midland Tribune's view: "The days of Civil War politics which cast a long shadow over Irish affairs are dead and buried judging by the concentration of all the political parties on bread and butter economic issues."