The message for those contemplating making the jump to public life is that only insiders will dominate politics, writes ELAINE BYRNE
“IT IS a privilege to be here, of which I am conscious . . . Given the outcome of the byelection, there is no going back now . . . It is all about people . . . When a person has something powerful like a gun it is about how they use that power; it is about the responsibility with which he or she uses it . . . . I do not have much confidence in the Government’s ability to get us out of where we are and that is why I am here.”
George Lee’s maiden speech to the Dáil nine months ago was pregnant with anticipation and optimism for Irish politics. That he was now a Fine Gael TD was neither here nor there, he was someone the public trusted and listened to in an age when cynicism contaminated any hope in the very possibility of politics.
George “the Superfluous” Lee came to symbolise the deep sense of dissatisfaction felt not only by Dublin South voters but by Irish people across the country, irrespective of their traditional political allegiance.
His ability to articulate this anger and his decision to do something about it, so that he could “tell my children and grandchildren that I had done something to help in the greatest economic crisis in the history of the State”, tapped into a hungry wave of public discontent.
The energy that dominated his byelection campaign was rewarded by an extraordinary 27,768 first-preference votes, more than the combined vote of the seven other candidates.
George was not only a Fine Gael TD for Dublin South but a national public representative who sought to challenge the sincerely felt public perceptions of political apathy, lethargy and inertia.
He was an outsider entering the interior with the innocent or even naive hope of restoring the opportunity to believe in politics again.
Yesterday, though, everything changed. “The reality, however, is that despite my best efforts I have had virtually no influence or input into shaping Fine Gael’s economic policies at this most critical time,” he said. “The role I have been playing within the party has been very limited and I have found this to be personally unfulfilling.”
Why did expectation translate into resignation in such a short period?
Phonecalls and text messages yesterday from members of the Fine Gael front bench and Enda Kenny’s inner circle ranged from sentiments of shock, surprise, anger and utter disappointment.
Many just don’t know what to think. Some pointed to Lee’s unreasonable expectations of trying to change the system from within, in such a short period of time, others more malignly to his unaccommodating ego, his immaturity, his premature political judgment and thin-skinned fragility.
He was lonely and didn’t try to fit in, said another, something George himself alluded to in his interview with Newstalk’s Eamon Keane.
The finger-pointing has begun. Some of it is directed inevitably at Enda Kenny’s leadership, particularly given his consistently low poll ratings and poor recent media performances.
Others point to those providing the advice to Kenny. One such adviser admitted: “We knew we were getting a thoroughbred and anyone that knows anything about thoroughbreds knows that they have to be treated in a different way.”
As Lee told Sean O'Rourke on RTÉ Radio One's News at One: "They didn't look for my advice on anything . . . I'm a team player, I haven't had any team. I could have been asked, I could have been involved . . . being a crowd-puller is a hollow thing."
Or as the disillusioned Marlon Brando said in On the Waterfront: "You shoulda looked out for me a little bit. You shoulda taken care of me just a little bit so I wouldn't have to take them dives for the short-end money . . . You don't understand. I coulda had class. I coulda been a contender. I coulda been somebody."
The failure of Kenny and his advisers to adequately accommodate Lee’s sense of self-importance will no doubt saturate newspaper pages obsessed with personality politics in the coming days.
But all this is missing the point. As Frank Flannery, responsible for headhunting Lee into Fine Gael, said on Today FM's The Last Wordwith Matt Cooper, it is a very sad loss for Ireland.
An incredible 83 per cent of the 16,000 people who texted in 10 minutes to Joe Duffy's Livelineprogramme on RTÉ Radio One agreed with this.
The implicit message for those contemplating making the jump to contribute full time to public life, of whatever political persuasion, is that only insiders will dominate politics at a time of the greatest economic challenge to the State.
The conservative political way of doing things can now point to Lee’s failure as the justification for going on as before, oblivious to the deep anger of a disillusioned public.
The internal discussion within Fine Gael, for instance, over the last few weeks on a radical political reform document has been characterised by those who advocate fundamental change and those more concerned with self-preservation. A process which no doubt frustrated Lee.
Lee just didn’t give up on Fine Gael, he gave up on politics. I’m not sure whether it was Lee that let us down or politics that failed us.
But insanity, as Albert Einstein once said, is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.