Everybody thought if there were changes happening
on Macquarie Street today they’d have something to do with traffic flows and the
opening of the Cross City Tunnel.

Not so, thanks to what wags are calling John
Brogden’s youthful exuberance – getting p*ssed, making racist remarks, going the grope, lying to journalists
about it then trying to do a Beattie.

Hawke and Packer spin doctor Peter Barron
has famously talked about those occasions when political leaders have to go and
eat t*rd sandwiches while smiling. That’s what Brogden’s been doing
– but his advisers left nothing to chance.

After denying the stories of his bad
behaviour at an Australian Hotels Association shindig to weekend paper journalists, he went into full confessional mode.

Clearly, the hope was that Cross City
Tunnel snarls,
the Test defeat and the feral furore as the international big names arrived in
town to for tomorrow’s Forbes Global CEO Conference
down at the Opera House would swamp Sydney radio.

Not so. Brogden has received a savaging. Leading
the charge has been Bob Carr, who has rejected Brogden’s apology for calling
his Malaysian-born wife a “mail-order bride” and called for his sacking in appearances
on both the ABC and 2UE.

The lad himself has said he’ll let the
party decide his fate.
“They’ve indicated that they support me, but obviously I’ll speak to my
colleagues throughout the day,” he told Today when asked if he would resign.

And there’s the rub. If it all becomes too
much for the boy and he goes, deputy Barry O’Farrell should walk into the job –
but more by default than any other reason.

The buzz earlier today was that Brogden would
keep his job and that there would be no challenge – but the question remains of
who actually got the story out there. This is something that has been drifting
around since the end of last month. It’s been known to journalists. And it’s been
pressure from Brogden’s colleagues that has lead to today’s stories.

Reading between the lines of some reports –
like the Herald‘s background piece –
the voices of a few key NSW Liberal Party players like O’Farrell and Andrew
Humpherson seem clear. Everyone knows shadow transport minister Peter Debnam is
interested in the top job, too.

Brogden has managed to offend two pretty
sizeable constituencies – women and ethnic voters, particularly Asians. If he’s still in his job this afternoon, it
may only be because of the lack of a logical successor.