Coddington attacks Hide
Wow. I guess it is no surprise,but Deborah Coddington seems to really not like Rodney Hide, as the fomer Caucus colleague lets rip:
This week was very exciting for me because on Tuesday, after 12 months of abstinence, we finally got a television, just in time to watch the news with Glenn’s appearance before the committee in Wellington.
It’s a fabulous telly – big, flat screen and beautifully crisp, coloured pictures – but with such precision also comes shock.
The first thing we saw was Rodney Hide, just behind Owen Glenn, nodding, frowning, or shaking his head at committee members.
“Can we send the telly back now?” I asked my husband.
“I’ve suddenly remembered why I didn’t like watching.”
So the dislike is so strong, she hates even seeing him on TV?
I mean, it’s bad enough waking to Morning Report’s obsession with Hide’s Joe McCarthy-like allegations, but at least you can’t see him.
Then she compares him to Senator McCarthy. Never mind that if it were not for Winston’s complaint we would have never learnt from Owen Glenn that Winston solicted the $100,000 himself.
One year without television and suddenly he looks, to me, remarkably like Lockwood Smith. Do they share a personal trainer?
If anyone thinks Deborah is making a compliment, you are mistaken.
A cynic would say Hide snaffled a front-row seat to piggyback Glenn’s television coverage, but that’s unfair. The poor chap’s obviously hard of hearing and vision-impaired, and needs a forward position to understand all the proceedings, in case his pals Geoff, Sean or Duncan call for comment.
But someone could teach him sign language, or make a television series, Signing with the Stars, so poor Rodney needn’t camp outside the committee room for hours to bag the best seat.
I would have thought a former MP would know this. Rodney did not have to queue up at all. All MPs have the right to attend a committee as an observer, and they can just go in, when everyone else was queued up in advance. I know this for I was at the front of the queue and Rodney did not turn up until quite a bit later, and just went in, as did the other MPs.
On Wednesday night, when Winston Peters fronted to try to rebut Glenn’s evidence, there was Hide again, looking a little less chipper, but by this time even my horse felt sorry for him – clearly Hide hadn’t left his seat since Tuesday.
A bit like the urban-mythical one-arm bandit players at SkyCity Casino who don’t leave their stools for a comfort stop, Hide was looking desperate, cold and wasting away.
Umm no. Ask any journalist if Rodney has been looking any of those things. Could not be further from reality.
September 14th, 2008 at 11:41 am
If I start giving a crap what Coddington thinks… you’ll know the pod people have got me.
September 14th, 2008 at 11:43 am
“At least Act has always been upfront and unashamedly touted itself as the party for big business.”
This is an extremely vicious slander, all the worse for the fact that Deborah knows it is not true. Why on earth would she stoop to the promotion of progressive propaganda and betray her old friends this way?
Is this anything to do with a woman scorned??
September 14th, 2008 at 12:01 pm
wow what a weird column. just kinda meaningless.
September 14th, 2008 at 12:06 pm
Did the article carry an authorisation from Mike Smith or Aaron Bhatnagar (National’s Epsom campaign manager)?
Seriously though, Coddington has zero credibility when she goes off on these self-serving egotistical rants. One would hope the HoS have the sense to get rid of her during the election campaign when nobody cares.
September 14th, 2008 at 12:37 pm
Hell hath no fury than a women scorned (think I got that nearly right).
What in gods name did you guys do to her that upset her so much or is she just an arrogant person with little to be arrogant about.
September 14th, 2008 at 12:40 pm
Ross, 1. We have commited the great offence in NZ of having a penis 2. Yes.
September 14th, 2008 at 12:40 pm
I was surprised to read the column. I thought to myself wasn’t she a member of Hide’s team? I wonder what she’s got against him.
September 14th, 2008 at 12:55 pm
Go easy on Ms Coddington. She has clearly slipped into the age where women get all gooey and misty eyed about the matinée idol Winston Peters
His largest demographic is post menopausal mildly incontinent women who are feeling unfulfilled, Ms Coddington obviously fits within this group.
Might I suggest upping your dosage on the HRT Deborah?
September 14th, 2008 at 1:21 pm
Deborah asked her new husband: “What do you like most in me, my pretty face or my sexy body?”
He looked at her from head to toe and replied: “I like your sense of humor.”
September 14th, 2008 at 1:32 pm
Deborah Coddington was completely unsuited to be an MP. She spent her short time in parliament thinking mainly about herself, and when she wasn’t thinking about herself she was either day dreaming about sex or worrying about her husband’s debts. She achieved nothing as an MP.
September 14th, 2008 at 1:46 pm
Nah, I don’t hate Rodney, I’m having too much fun to hate anybody. It’s just that he’s an easy target, like I am, I guess. We put it out, we have to take it, Rodney knows that. Hilarious comments too, by the way, extreme intelligence.
September 14th, 2008 at 1:51 pm
What a bitch. This is a woman who spent years bagging the ACT Party both publicly and privately, and was then graciously offered a high list placing and got into parliament on the back of some very good MPs. She spent her time in parliament doing absolutely nothing, and now is so ungrateful that she feels the need to attack the very talented (is she jealous?) leader of the ACT Party. What a waste of oxygen this woman is. The faster she withers away the better.
September 14th, 2008 at 1:53 pm
Excellent interview of Rodney Hide yesterday speaking with WhaleOil about the election…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_FDx6mIE2o
September 14th, 2008 at 2:14 pm
Top marks to Ms Coddington for reading the hatemongery we have all thrown at her and nicely done with the link to your webpage… Very businesslike, just what we would expect from a once was ACT member.
September 14th, 2008 at 2:35 pm
Coddington needs to realize that getter bitter never helps you to get better! I agree with others that she was a total waste of space in Parliament (only she would say otherwise) as she used to get all up in arms over issues that the public of New Zealand are now wanting to change.
She appears to have a major problem with Men, especially ones who show strong leadership as her ex leader is currently displaying. If the truth is know she possibly voted against him in the leadership challenge.
I assume she is no longer part of Act, which means they are making better decisions these days.
She does nothing for her credibility by attacking a party she was once part of!
September 14th, 2008 at 2:40 pm
Hmmm… with a couple of exceptions almost every comment has alluded to the fact that Ms Coddington achieved a grand total of absolutely nothing during her time in Parliament, giving her membership of a (sadly, not nearly exclusive enough) club which includes the likes of Alamein Koopu.
Then she jumps into the debate and calls it “hilarious”.
Well actually, no. Getting yourself elected to Parliament and then using it as a platform for a bit of self-promotion while achieving absolutely nothing, all the while being handsomely remunerated from the crippling level of taxes imposed on us lesser beings is far from hilarious.
Bizzarely it seems abject failure as an MP, followed by departure from Parliament with the sound of ridicule and laughter burning your ears is de rigueur for Sunday newspaper columnists – Michael Laws, Deborah Coddington…
Perhaps we should stop wasting even more of our money on the rags that employ them (thus compounding our orginal unwilling donation to their wealth) and quoting them when they make an obvious and laboured attempt to draw even more attention to themselves with such petty nonsense. Then, instead of hanging round public life like the proverbial bad smell, they’ll simply dissipate.
September 14th, 2008 at 2:49 pm
This is a shame.
Deborah is one of the people who tell it like it is. So is Rodney. New Zealand needs them both.
It would be great if the media published more about Rodney’s policy positions, as they’re impressive. But we should at least all be grateful for his Berkbusting – delivering the head of Winston Peters.
It would be nice to think that honest people could reward Rodney in the same numbers that the rednecks support Winston.
September 14th, 2008 at 3:05 pm
“Telling it like it is”, aka honesty, is a minimum acceptable qualification for elected office. And when it manifests as spitting vitriol while sitting on your arse in your nice padded green leather bench and doing nothing about it, it becomes laziness, hypocrisy or both.
Hide can point to achievements which, for an opposition MP with zero influence on government policy (and, in fact, an active hositility to his positions) are commendable. Coddington, on the other hand, can point to… what, exactly?
September 14th, 2008 at 3:23 pm
Good one Deborah. Hide has not been an asset to the Liberal Right – he has almost single-handedly destroyed the party that a few business associates and myself were heavily involved in – at least at start-up.
The party has become a monument to his huge ego – at root his is an economics lecturer with a background similar to Clark’s.
Muriel Newman would have been a far better leader.
September 14th, 2008 at 3:34 pm
“Good one Deborah. Hide has not been an asset to the Liberal Right – he has almost single-handedly destroyed the party that a few business associates and myself were heavily involved in – at least at start-up.”
Ruth, that’s crap. At least do us the courtesy of explaining how he did this? I would argue that he saved the party. Most of the ACT vote went to National when Don Brash became leader. Richard Prebble resigned and Rodney won the election contest beating Franks and Newman. Muriel is a conservative, which would not have worked too well in a classical liberal party, and Franks has the tendency to say odd things with shocking frequency.
“The party has become a monument to his huge ego – at root his is an economics lecturer with a background similar to Clark’s.”
That is just not credible. Considering he saved the party by winning Epsom when every political commentator and their dog said he – and ACT – was toast, he should have something of an ego, but I don’t think he does.
“Muriel Newman would have been a far better leader.”
See my first sentence.
September 14th, 2008 at 3:57 pm
Other than going through the most public mid life crisis since Mike Hoskins I think Rodney is doing a good job, despite bearing a striking resemblance to tango man!. He has forced national into it’s position on Bauble Boy, and for thsat we should thank him.
The vitriolic rant some commenter’s have indulged in on Deborah Coddington does them no favours, surely it is better to offer her the sympathy that only the young can offer the old. She has a dotage full of dreams about winnie and looking for specials on tena lady to look forward to after all. And for that we should indulge her in the same way we do very old doddery relatives who smell faintly of wee.
September 14th, 2008 at 6:55 pm
It’s not a difficult task to think up valid criticisms of Rodney Hide. Is this really the best she can do? How childish.
If she feels she gets a lack of respect from her former supporters, it’s only because she has dithered about so much over her basic political philosophy. It’s one thing to change your mind once new arguments come to light, but to do it so frequently is to make one appear flaky. And then there was that horrid article in North and South on the non-existent “Asian Crime problem” – which was reminiscent of Nazi propaganda against Jews. The scorn she currently receives is entirely of her own making, and she has no right to be bitter.
September 14th, 2008 at 7:59 pm
Who really cares what Coddington has to say on this or any other matter?
September 14th, 2008 at 8:02 pm
When she has a circulation of thousands, I do.
Reminds me a bit of Liz Gordon’s nasty articles for the Press – thank god she’s been axed.
September 14th, 2008 at 8:20 pm
At first people will call what I write patronising BUT a very good family friend started raving like Coddington several years ago.
We were rather astonished by our friend’s rant. It then became obvious to us what was troubling her. It was one of those dreadful medical complaints that so, sadly, afflict middle aged women. My wife’s help to our friend was applaudable.
Some will call it insulting, but I mean this most honourably; Deborah Coddington, you must seek expert gynaelogical advice.
September 14th, 2008 at 8:21 pm
sorry, Gynaecological
September 14th, 2008 at 8:32 pm
Most of her recent columns have seemed completely unbalanced. I suspect it is a good thing for ACT that she is now divorcing herself from it as she wasn’t doing its reputation any good as an ex-member writing nonsense.
September 14th, 2008 at 11:15 pm
I am struggling to what exactly she did as an MP?! She seemed as useless as Pam Corkery and Alamein Kopu but seems to have the impression that she is an important person. Since when did we start giving her the idea that she was any more important than a newspaper columnist?
September 14th, 2008 at 11:31 pm
It is qutie alarming to me that a party that has previously contained only the most scrupulous and honest MPs accepted rampant egomaniac and socialist Deborah Coddington so high on their list. At least ACT have learned their lesson and rejected both Coddington and her socialist cronies at the Herald on Sunday, who are content to spin endless futile attacks against John Key at the behest of Aunty Helen
September 15th, 2008 at 12:23 am
I used to sometimes read Deborah’s weekly column she put out while in parliament. It was usually about as long as one of DPF’s major posts for the day. Yep, she was great value for that 100k salary!
September 15th, 2008 at 9:48 am
Deborah’s problem with Rodney started during the ACT leadership race. In attempting to shore up his caucus votes, Rodney went around offering things like the deputy leadership role to the non-contestant MPs in the primary, in return for their support. Unfortunately, Deborah was the only one who seems to have actually thought the offer was real – a mark of her political naievety! She really wants to be Sarah Palin maybe?
September 15th, 2008 at 11:48 am
Kind of menopausal methinks.
September 15th, 2008 at 1:26 pm
Hi, Deborah here again, that terrible woman who’s racist, bitter, menopausal (actually, too old for that) and any other number of adjectives you care to choose. Just to correct a couple of things – Rodney didn’t “promise” anyone deputy leadership – he can’t do that as it’s a caucus vote. Yes, I stood for dl, but was beaten fair and square by Muriel. Also, I did vote for Rodney for leader, in fact as I recall it, I was the one championing him at the time when the going got tough. Look, I don’t hate Rodney, I’ve said before he’s one of the most intelligent, smartest MPs in the House, but when he gets on a “perkbuster” roll it consumes the whole party, and eclipses any policy. Act is a great party that always seems to shoot itself in the foot – why did they consign Lindsay Mitchell to number 11, for pete’s sake? What a waste. I disagree with Lindsay more than I agree with her, but she’d be a great MP, she’s been incredibly loyal to the party, she can raise money, pull people, and get votes. That said, there are some good candidates at the top – John Boscawen is excellent potential MP material because he’s so dogged. Don’t know the rest further down the list so can’t comment. I still believe if Act’s core policies were adopted by NZ, it would be the best thing for the country. Now, can we please all take a big breath and settle down?
September 15th, 2008 at 3:44 pm
Whatever Heather, shouldn’t you be busy jerking off Helen Clark with all your fellow socialist beard-wearers at the Herald?