Partial denials of a power struggle within the Progressive Democrats and deliberate evasions by two of its most senior members bear all the hallmarks of a damage limitation exercise.
When the diversions and obfuscations are stripped away, a picture emerges of Tánaiste Mary Harney successfully rebuffing an attempt by the party president, Michael McDowell, to supplant her as party leader before the next general election. While both politicians are anxious to present a united front to the electorate, reverberations from the affair may cause long-term damage to the party and to the cohesion of the Coalition Government.
Leadership challenges are never gentle affairs. They poison the atmosphere within a parliamentary party. In a small party, the result can be particularly traumatic because lines of allegiance are so tightly drawn. Rather than supporting one another and facing outward, vital energy is expended on destructive in-fighting. In the case of the PDs, that has involved eight TDs and five Senators and resulted in Ms Harney's leadership being endorsed until after the next general election.
Party officials made much of yesterday's lunch appointment between Ms Harney and Mr McDowell. Relations between the two Ministers were said to be professional and businesslike, if not warm. After what transpired earlier in the week, however, it will take more than a much-publicised lunch to heal the rifts that have emerged within the junior Government party.
These events have been long in gestation. Mr McDowell, the powerhouse of ideas in the party, has never concealed his ambition to lead the PDs. He was partially encouraged by Ms Harney who, on a number of occasions after he became party president in 2002, publicly indicated she might not lead the party into another election. Her comments generated widespread media speculation about whether her successor would be Mr McDowell, Tom Parlon or Liz O'Donnell. All that changed, however, when the Tánaiste became Minister for Health in September, 2004. Then, it became clear that Ms Harney intended to make her record on health reform a central plank of the party's election platform.
As party president and political strategist, Mr McDowell may have had concerns about that, particularly as their relationship has been fraught for some time. Those reservations would have deepened as reform of the health services proved intractable.
Mr McDowell's handling of the fallout from the Supreme Court statutory rape judgment may have had a bearing on developments. The Tánaiste contradicted his version of events on two key matters in the Dáil. He was later criticised within the PDs. There is rarely a "right time" for a leadership challenge. In this instance, however, the principals involved were both under intense critical scrutiny from the electorate and it was politically destructive. Such behaviour reflects a malaise in the wider Government.