Michael McDowell has a spectacular propensity to overlook golden opportunities to keep his mouth shut. It will be his undoing in time, it will be the undoing of the Progressive Democrats, unless he is restrained, which seems unlikely, and it may be the undoing of the Government, writes Vincent Browne.
The latest instance of this propensity has had to do with Judge Neilan. Judge Neilan is a District Court judge and what he says or indeed does is of little consequence in the greater scheme of things. His announcement that henceforth he was going to jail persons he convicts of drunken driving, in advance of deciding on the appropriate penalty for their crime, was silly. But nothing of consequence would have come of that, aside from the brief incarceration of one or two convicted drunken drivers, who would have been released promptly by the High Court following a habeas corpus application. The matter would then have been set right. The law would have been made clear to Judge Neilan.
In other words, this matter did not require the assistance of Michael McDowell. The world or humankind would not have been the worse off. It is not that his intervention has caused any great constitutional crisis. He and the rest of us are entitled to describe as silly or wrong or bizarre, or incoherent any utterances or decisions of judges of whatever distinction or rather level (for level and distinction are not co-terminus with the judiciary).
The doctrine of the separation of powers was not breached by the comment of Michael McDowell, as that doctrine is not breached when, as has occurred on a few occasions, the judiciary comment adversely on the Oireachtas or the government. Were Judge Neilan to comment that Michael McDowell was a stupid oaf, no constitutional nicety would be infringed.
But knowing the prickliness of the judiciary, a phenomenon that heightens as one goes down the judicial ladder (well, in the main, a phenomenon that heightens as one goes down the judicial ladder), Michael McDowell should have kept quiet. However, the question is, could he have kept quiet or are opportunities, as he sees them, to show off his superior knowledge and/or superior intellect, irresistible?
The contrast between Michael McDowell and Bertie Ahern is interesting. Bertie Ahern has no personal need to prove to others he is clever. In fact, being as clever as he is, he sees it an advantage not to appear clever, to be bumbling, incoherent and obtuse. That capacity has served him wonderfully.
Another capacity he has is his capacity for restraint: never to say anything in a conflict situation which might make the situation worse. He has no need to win arguments, the ultimate outcome is what matters to him. For Michael McDowell, the joy is not in the ultimate outcome, it is in the immediate assertion of intellectual superiority, as he sees it. Not very clever.
But it is that propensity that is likely to sharpen divisions between the parties in Government in the coming months, indeed to sharpen divisions within the Progressive Democrats as well. And it is the bare-toothed fanaticism of Michael McDowell on the economy, equality, and the rights of minorities that is likely to do such harm to his party and Government. Unless . . .
There has been great hilarity over the last few days over Bertie Ahern's claim to be a socialist. And hilarious indeed it is, but don't be deceived by the incongruity of it. Bertie is positioning himself and his party apart from the Progressive Democrats and what better way to do that than by caricature? He may be hoping for a salvo from Michael McDowell about the intellectual incoherence of socialism and/or the intellectual incoherence of a claim to be socialist by the leader of a government that has achieved such success through inequality and capitalism. All the better if Michael McDowell draws the dividing lines even more sharply and, very likely, Michael McDowell will again miss another opportunity to keep his mouth shut.
A breach with the Progressive Democrats well ahead of the next election would suit Bertie Ahern very well indeed. Had a break occurred before the last election it would have been seen as evidence of Fianna Fáil's incapacity to manage coalition governments but nobody can accuse Bertie Ahern of that now.
But a break ahead of the next election would allow Fianna Fáil to position itself back towards the centre of the political spectrum or, however implausibly, slightly to the left. You can just see those soft eyes, mourning the rift with a valued partner in government and the blubbering expression of regret that the Progressive Democrats could not be persuaded to care, as Bertie does, about the disadvantaged, the needy. If that is the strategy, Michael McDowell can be relied upon to create the appropriate backdrop.
And it might work, work in ways extraordinary. It might save Fianna Fáil seats and it might also save Progressive Democrat seats, between them sufficient seats to enable them to go back into government again. But only Bertie is clever enough to orchestrate that one.