John Armstrong: Heavyweight bout threatens to knock PM off lofty perch

The stand-off between John Key and Phil Goff over access to sexually-suggestive text messages allegedly sent by Richard Worth is doing neither party leader any favours.

There, surely, could be a way found for Key to have a squiz at the texts without him or Goff imposing conditions the other will not accept.

In ratcheting up their "you said this; no, I said that" exchanges, however, the Prime Minister and the Labour leader are starting to look incredibly petty.

But then making Key look petty may be very much what Labour is trying to do.

For a few short hours late last week, traditional enemies seemed likely to co-operate as Key sought "documentary evidence" to determine whether his former minister told him the truth when Worth denied persistently pestering an Indian woman with phone calls and texts.

In truth, Key and Goff had backed one another into separate corners after arguing over who had said what when Goff rang Key early last month to tell him the woman had complained to him about Worth's behaviour.

Having stressed that during the phone call he had offered Key a look at the texts, Goff was last week obliged to renew his offer. Having said Goff did not make such an offer during the call, Key was equally obliged to accept Goff's renewed offer and said he would meet the Indian woman.

A meeting was organised for Friday, but Key added a rider that the material first be shown to his chief of staff, Wayne Eagleson.

Labour says the woman was not happy with that and wanted to meet Key. Key insists he had to be satisfied that the texts would make a material difference.

The result? Impasse. And no great effort to resolve it.

But do Key and Goff really want to do so?

Key is being far more careful about saying whether or not Worth might be subject to a suspension or expulsion motion when the National caucus meets next Tuesday.

Key still seems hopeful Worth will solve the problem by retiring from Parliament.

There seems to have been an effort by the Prime Minister to cool things down. The texts will only heat things up if they say what they are purported to say.

Labour has no reason to compromise. It suits Goff to drag things out. He will be delighted that questions on Worth's past and future consumed most of the Prime Minster's weekly press conference yesterday.

Why would Labour be in a hurry to hand over the text messages and phone logs allegedly showing Worth's calls when they are of assistance only to Key?

Labour is playing a bigger game here - one that is really all about pulling a popular prime minister off his perch and making him look and behave like just another politician.