NZ Prime Minister apologizes to MegaUpload's Kim DotCom

[dividebyzero]

Guest = National Party spinner.

The PM only went high profile in order to deflect the upcoming review conclusions.

 

[TJGeezer]

The PM is a politician and acts like a politician. No big news there. But instead of spinning it to look like this action was on some sort of moral high ground, he apologized and so did his chief enforcement bureaucrat. That he wanted to deflect "review conclusions" (whatever that signifies in NZ) is hardly surprising. But instead of posturing and defending what his administration did he chose to apologize to someone who had wound up in the local system's grinder. I'm still impressed and surprised. You won't see politicians doing that for anything but getting caught with prostitutes or flirting with the same gender in public bathrooms in the U.S. Still seems to me politicians choosing to do something honorable, for whatever reason, ought to be celebrated, not criticized for acting in self-interest and especially not when he had alternatives.

 

[dividebyzero]

On the surface from a few thousand miles away, I'd grant that the gesture looks magnanimous- the desired effect, but Key's getting hammered (no pun intended) for this and every other misstep his government makes, makes it a fait accompi. He's apologising for something he helped instigate, and while apologising wants to quash a formal public inquiry...so, basically is sacrificing a few minutes of TV credibility in the hope that the Government and its security agencies don't have to suffer through a protracted airing of dirty laundry that almost certainly doesn't end with Kim Dotcom and a "request" from the FBI. A brief overview. ..>>here<<<.... minus the ongoing questions of NZ being an outpost for US ELINT/SIGINT operations.

Aiming to be better than U.S. politicians isn't a great recommendation in this country, where a national political scandal is usually in the order of a politician padding out their expense accounts by a few thousand dollars, or saying something less than politically astute