Te Radar: Get stuck in Don - it'll be great on TV

Finally, some truth in politics. I was overcome with a heady sense of elation when I heard Helen Clark describe Don Brash as a "corrosive and cancerous person in the political arena".

The calm, almost joyous manner in which she delivered her vituperative sound bite was superb.

This kind of candour is delightfully refreshing in politics. At last, I thought, Clark has fully metamorphosed into the forthright autocrat I always knew she could be.

That she believes Brash's policies and personality will cause so much harm to we, the people she loves, is admirably heartwarming.

Many people despair about the state of politics, who view the muckraking and sleaze as detrimental to the nation. I am not one of those persons.

I think it is incredibly entertaining. I suspect I am not alone in this.

Despite politicians and media squawking heads claiming that the public isn't interested in the torrid details of politicians' lives, internet traffic to NZ print media websites increased by 10 per cent in the days after the news of Brash's apparent indiscretion broke.

There was also an astounding 1300 per cent increase in internet searches about Don after the revelation of his supposed impropriety.

These searches were not people suddenly interested in his policies, but, judging by the search terms they used, were people titillated by the scandal. The political pages have become the purveyors of tittle-tattle and scuttlebutt and are all the better for it.

That more sleaze may come to light serves only to whet the appetites of those of us who were hoping political reporting could become as stimulatingly frivolous as the tabloid gossip over celebrities.

In this whole scintillatingly sordid affair, little can compete with the delightful sight of the delicate National Party flower that is Judith Collins, weeping over the revelations about her Don.

She hasn't provided such entertainment since she contributed to the development of the tic on the besieged David Benson-Pope's face that so embodied the physical manifestation of his wee crisis.

Don meanwhile, has stated that he will not descend to personal insults against anyone, especially those in the "most corrupt government the country has ever seen".

This is disappointing. Well-crafted venom delivered by the debonair Don would be terrific television.

Brash has said the public will see haughty Helen's words as a sign of desperation. I suspect they will see it as simply another part of the whole compelling debacle.

So, to those who wail self-righteously that the behaviour emanating from the Beehive is the worst they have seen in Parliament in decades, I say au contraire. It is politics at it's finest.

The pretence that political rivals get along at least civilly in public when they differ so radically in their ideological illogicalities is tiresome.

If opposing leaders don't feel that their opponent is cancerous and corrosive, and can't express themselves with such candour, one needs to question whether they are really doing their jobs.