Kiwiblog

Dave at Big News blogs:

Kevin Campbell is the campaign manager for the Conservative Party. Prior to the election he was very happy in using Facebook to promote the party and most comments were of a political nature. But after the election he appears to have closed ranks after something he posted that many found offensive. Incidentally I was told by a Conservative Party candidate that they were not to use social media during the campaign.

Campbell questioned whether new Green MP Mojo Mathers, who is the world’s fifth profoundly deaf MP, should even be an MP as she didn’t have all her “faculties” – and only people who have all their faculties should be MPs. In other words, because she is deaf, she is unsuitable as an MP. Mathers became an MP after special votes were counted and I think she is perfectly suitable to be an effective MP.

I don’t support her politics, but I certainly also think Mathers is perfectly suitable to be an effective MP. We should celebrate people who overcome adversity and disability, not denigrate them.

Incidentally one of my favourite actresses is Marlee Matlin who played pollster Joey Lucas on West Wing. She’s currently on the Celebrity Apprentice and doing well.

As for Mr Campbell, I presume it is the same Mr Campbell who used to refer to the Prime Minister as “John the Jew”. Need more be said.

I blogged previously on former ACT member Kevin Campbell, who resigned after his comments referring to the PM as “John the Jew” were highlighted by me.

I thought that was the end of the saga, but he has sent an open letter to Rodney Hide and a large number of ACT members complaining about well basically everything, which includes this paragraph:

“I referred to the prime minister in a blog as John the Jew. I admit it wasn’t a smart comment and it could be viewed negatively by some, but it was off-the-cuff and not intended to be racially offensive in any way. Even so I offered John Key my genuine apology which he accepted with thanks. The matter should have ended there but I underestimated my opponents to the board, which included you and the party president, you chose to escalate the issue into something unsavory to discredit me and damage my election chances.”

This generated a response from one ACT member, which is just too wonderful to keep hidden:

It’s pleasing to see that you realise it wasn’t a smart comment, and even more pleasing to see that ACT chose to escalate the issue to the point that you resigned. Its also a relief to read that the comment was off-the-cuff; had it been the result of careful consideration, ACT would have had to consider even more drastic measures.

Given your obvious continuing interest in politics, and a clear talent for self-exculpation, I’m trying to think of how you could resuscitate your political career. Iran seems the obvious place. Even then, you would have to be careful to ensure that you limited your “off-the-cuff” religious slurs to foreign politicians in a fairly limited set of countries. Check with the President there (Ahmadinejad) before you repeat this sort of performance. He’s not a model of diplomacy but he hasn’t yet made an apparently sneering comment about the religion of anyone above him in the pecking order. Good luck.

xxxxxx xxxxx

PS: Have a look at your genealogy. If you go back far enough, you may find a Jewish ancestor.

I’ve yet to be informed if this helpful suggestion will be acted upon.

I blogged on the 27th of January about how comments on a blog referring to the PM as “John the Jew” were made by someone seeking the Vice-Presidency of ACT. I said:

Now ACT can not control which of its members stand for office and the comments of one member is no reflection on them. But this may help their members with their voting decisions …

But a reader has emailed me to say that Mr Campbell has resigned his membership of ACT, which automatically means he has withdrawn from the contest for the Vice-Presidency.

I don’t think he needed to resign from the party, but I do think it is a good outcome that he has withdrawn from the Vice-Presidential contest. If you seek senior office within a political party, you need to be aware that what you say can reflect on your party, and not just you.

UPDATE: Murray has more details on this.

I note over at John Ansell’s blog that a Kevin Campbell commented:

Brilliant design John & Ken, now you just have to convince John the Jew. You get my vote.

He defended his comment:

Basil, relax, its a fact he’s a Jew. If it was Helen Clark I would have said Helen the dirty filthy communist.

So presumably Kevin sees both things as very bad.

I find the reference very distasteful and derogatory. It is like if he had Pakistani ancestry, calling him John the Paki.

Now normally I would not highlight comments like the above, unless the person is of some significance.

But a Kevin Campbell is currently standing for the Vice-Presidency of ACT.

Now ACT can not control which of its members stand for office and the comments of one member is no reflection on them. But this may help their members with their voting decisions, assuming it is the same Kevin Campbell.