Getting ugly

Its only three days in, and already the Labour leadership race is getting ugly. First, there's the smear story about David Parker's private life which will apparently run in the Sunday Star Times this weekend, which was one of the reasons he decided to call it quits. Then, this morning, there's the suggestion from Audrey Young that

Shane Jones is also an outside chance as a running mate. He and Mr Shearer together would represent a return to a more pragmatic party, with less emphasis on gays and feminists.

One of the MPs helping Mr Shearer is Damien O'Connor (West Coast-Tasman), who said last term that the party was dominated by "a gaggle of gays and self-serving unionists".

And finally, we have John Tamihere demonstrating, once again, that's he's an arsehole:

Former Labour MP John Tamihere has criticised David Cunliffe's choice of running mate for the party's leadership, saying he picked Nanaia Mahuta because she is female and Maori.

''The only thing she's lacking is she doesn't have a limp. Then he would have got the disabled [vote] too. That's the truth of it and that's the way it smacked as soon as I saw it.''

Because obviously, four white guys with penises is one two few.

(I think Tamihere is dead wrong on this, BTW. Mahuta voluntarily joined the backbench this term, for family reasons. Despite that, she's done far more than the higher ranked Maryan Street or Sue Moroney. Or indeed David Shearer. But he gets a pass because he's a guy)

Last time, we had a coronation. This time, we have a all-out smackdown between Labour's progressive elements and its bigots (not to mention a generational struggle between the dying Boomers and the rising Xers). Whether this will translate into a change in tone or policy is unclear, but if it does, and Labour does decide to turn its back on women and gays, then I'm sure the Greens will be happy to take their votes.