The Whaleoil blog is one of Colin Craig’s most vociferous enemies. Cameron Slater’s unceasing campaign against Craig seems to be personal in nature, and makes me wonder if there is not some past event, some affront to Slater’s ego, that is behind the vendetta. Did Craig reject Slater or perhaps one of his friends in the political consulting business?

I can’t see Craig agreeing to take advice from Slater due to the latter’s Progressive political proclivities, in particular his support for same sex marriage which most Conservatives are implacably opposed to. Slater just does not get Conservatism so his advice would be worthless.

Today Slater reprints a letter accusing Craig of autocracy within the party. I think such a letter can be found within any party. Not to say Craig may not be autocratic, but the fact that he founded the party and put up a couple of million dollars of his own money does give him some ownership rights.

Craig has also been accused of “unchristian behaviour” by his press secretary who pointedly resigned the day before the election. Nothing could be more “unchristian” than resigning on the eve of an election. No one with any true political mission would have done something so damaging and spiteful no matter what the personal issue. By not leaving her resignation until after the election the press secretary made it plain she put personal issues above the good of the party.

Craig put a couple of million of his own money into an effort to challenge the sclerotic orthodoxy of the two progressive party system in NZ and came within a hair’s breadth of achieving that heroic goal.

Cam Slater lost in his boxing match last night and his political critics are finding pleasure in his beating, but the real issue is Slaters’s undeniable courage in facing an obviously superior fighting force. Just like Colin Craig did.

Nobody is perfect. Its easy to find fault and criticise when you’re not subject to the threat of failure. Craig and Slater went out there and had a go. They both deserve credit for their courage and I’m not going to be one of the whining do nothings who can only criticize Craig from the shadows.

Again, the sclerotic orthodoxy of progressive politics has to be broken and Craig is the only person so far who has provided a real opportunity to do that. Slater too should give Craig some credit, and he might if he was objective about it. He isn’t, and he never has been, not even from the get go, and I therefore suspect there’s something personal driving Slater’s anti-Craig crusade.

So is there really anything happening with the Conservative party? Craig denies it. The latest statement from the party is that “Post-election sees Conservative steadily growing in members, donations continue to be received and this support and encouragement is greatly appreciated. Thank you all so much!”

Slater is not the only progressive with an apparent grudge against Craig. The MSM also dislikes him intensely and claims there is serious disruption within the party. Given their tendency for misleading by omission and or emphasising the negatives, I’d take anything either of these sources say about Craig and the Conservative party with a grain of salt. If there’s anything real going on there, out of the ordinary on a political basis, I’ve yet to be informed of it.