Keep your enemies close, Enda

When Sun Tzu wrote The Art of War 2,400 years ago, he would not have been aware that his book would be used at the West Point US military academy to the present day.

How he would feel about it we shall never know, but the fact remains ,it is. America’s top military training school still appreciates his tactics and it appears he also has a fan in the form of Enda Kenny, the beleaguered leader of Ireland’s second-fiddle party, Fine Gael.
The under-pressure Taoiseach-in–waiting has shocked us all this week with the news that he wants his taciturn, bloodthirsty aggressor, Richard Bruton, back on his front bench. No doubt the pressure-shredded head of Kenny feels this is a wise move from a political point of view and has bought into the tactics of Sun Tzu in a very big way, but it leaves the rest of us to ask, with very good reason, what? If this is a public relations exercise, it exposes Fine Gael as nothing more than a national joke. If it is a genuine attempt to unify the party, it exposes the newly re-sanctified leader as a bumbling innocent with all the political awareness of a gannet. Either way, things are not looking good for the boys and girls in blue.
There are a number of other political philosophers that Enda might have taken his lead from in making the decision regarding Richard Bruton’s future and foremost among them is Niccolò Machiavelli. In 1532, five years after his death, his novel The Prince was published. The manner of politics he advocated in that work has – so brutal and realistic was it in its form – spawned the term Machiavellian. Summed up neatly, the ends justify the means.
Anyone with half a political gut would fire everyone who had dared to question his authority but Enda finds himself in the uncomfortable position of having a tiny pool of talent to choose from. If he fires those who rose against him on the crest of that flaccid wave he will leave his next-best-thing-party with nothing up front, like an expectant, amorous teenager with erectile dysfunction. So what does he have instead? At the moment, Enda is captain of a sinking ship, one that is destined for nothing greater than the rocks and an ignominious end. The dreadful thing is that the crew knows it all too well.
Members of the parliamentary party openly backed his opponent, very likely in the knowledge that Enda had little option but to choose from the same stock in his reshuffle and never has reshuffle been such a truism.
The extent of Enda’s lack of choice was well illustrated by the report in The Irish Times which included the almost unbelievable line, “A number of Mr Kenny’s supporters expressed the view yesterday that only three, or possibly four, of the 11 frontbench TDs who expressed no confidence in Mr Kenny would be readmitted to the team.”
Enda will put himself forward as the next potential Taoiseach with a front bench containing many members who have publically declared themselves unconfident of his ability to lead their party. What must they think of his potential to lead the country? It is difficult not to feel a little sympathy for Kenny’s position. He is so desperately short of talent that he has no choice but to reappoint his detractors to his front bench. It must be an extremely frustrating thing for him but if he had the best interests of the party at heart, he would have just stepped down. He can never be anything now but a lame duck leader, forever open to ridicule and question because he has only just survived the challenge.
Joe Carey backed the right horse this time around and has been mentioned for promotion but I’m sure he is more than aware that the time of Kenny is limited. Richard Bruton may have proved to be a ridiculous challenger but it is only a matter of time before somebody else steps up to the plate and challenges for the reigns of power in Fine Gael. There will clearly be unrest in the ranks for many months to come and no doubt there will be all manner of machinations going on behind closed doors.
Living on borrowed time is not an easy thing and I expect that the summer break will only heighten the tension for Enda. TDs will be off in their constituencies away from the watchful eye of the party machine. Some may even meet with others and plot the overthrow of the man from Mayo. All these dark thoughts will plague Kenny in the coming months and he will struggle to cope as a result.
When the Dáil returns after the summer recess he will be so suspicious of his TDs that he is more likely to trust Brian Cowen than any of them. A wounded animal is a dangerous thing, a wounded Kenny simply elicits sympathy. How long he will limp on for remains to be seen but somebody should do the decent thing very soon and put him out of his misery. From a position of extraordinary potential to seize power, Fine Gael lies in ruins and party supporters cannot stand for that no matter what they say in public. Tick-tock Enda.