Bertie Ahern's complaints about the coverage of the controversy about his finances shows how skewered Irish political morals have become. Today Bertie Ahern is in the Irish Times whinging about how unfairly he was treated ( I also heard him on the radio yesterday) by the media. Why are we even tolerating such complaints?
Why is that whenever a politician does something wrong, and Bertie Ahern did wrong, that it is always the media's fault for pointing it out? Bertie Ahern took money, Bertie did not pay tax on that money, he was a TD and Minister for Finance at the time. That is wrong, very wrong, yet Bertie is on about how unfairly he was treated by the papers, tv and radios stations that exposed his wrong-doing.
What's more he was also ranting on about "those in politics who have agendas. There are those out there who are personally out to get you all of the time."
So according to Bertie Ahern it is the media and "those with agendas" who are to blame? I think rather the opposite. Bertie took money at the time which would have amounted to 5 years salary for me at the time. He took it at the time I was paying his salary from my meagre taxes.
The man has no sense of accountability or responsibility and any man who takes money from others has no sense of pride, self respect or respect for their office.
How much longer will we tolerate low standards in high office?
Why is that whenever a politician does something wrong, and Bertie Ahern did wrong, that it is always the media's fault for pointing it out? Bertie Ahern took money, Bertie did not pay tax on that money, he was a TD and Minister for Finance at the time. That is wrong, very wrong, yet Bertie is on about how unfairly he was treated by the papers, tv and radios stations that exposed his wrong-doing.
What's more he was also ranting on about "those in politics who have agendas. There are those out there who are personally out to get you all of the time."
So according to Bertie Ahern it is the media and "those with agendas" who are to blame? I think rather the opposite. Bertie took money at the time which would have amounted to 5 years salary for me at the time. He took it at the time I was paying his salary from my meagre taxes.
The man has no sense of accountability or responsibility and any man who takes money from others has no sense of pride, self respect or respect for their office.
How much longer will we tolerate low standards in high office?
2 comments:
He was treated unfairly in some respects. The dragging of his house into the affair being the most blatent example. What allegations were being made about his house isn't clear - it was just part of a smear campaign against Bertie. I accept he was wrong to accept the monies but that was a different time and political-climate to now. It predated relevant ethics-legislation. Furthermore unlike Haughey who received millions, the sums in Bertie's case were far smaller and were not used for self-enrichment unlike Haughey. So it's important to compare like with like.
I can't accept your argument because you are saying that morals are different now.
It was never acceptable for a Minister to accept money from anyone. Never.
Just because it happened in the past or because it pales in comparison to the corruption of others doesn't mean it was not wrong.
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