Don't Cry for me Argentina........

Winston Peters has certainly got himself in a pickle.

First, he pokes his stick at Rodney Hide and suggests that Rodney supported the NZ immigration application of a "radical libertarian", one Mr Jim Peron.

Then, Peters gets attacked for his "abuse" of Parliamentary privilege.

Some bloggers, especially the self-inflated and rather egotistical David Farrar, see Peters actions as rather naughty.

In one respect, they are right. If he doesn't have the evidence, then Peters should shut up. But that doesn't make Parliamentary privilege wrong. All it means is that he might have abused it.

Second, Peters does have a point. Rodney Hide hangs out with some dodgy people with rather unsavoury morals, and for him to be connected with Jim Peron and his partner's immigration application adds further fuel to the accusations that Hide is a straight batter for the gay brigade in Parliament.

Next, I read an interview with Jim Peron on Scoop. He answers questions in a strange, elusive manner and points the finger at Lindsay Perigo. All the interview does is make him look even more dodgy and embroiled in a public gay spat with Perigo. Furthermore, as one travels through the interview, Peron accuses everyone else of being wrong (especially the San Francisco Chronicle who twisted a story about him and his bookshop) and points out that the bookshop he owned in San Francisco (in the Castro) did actually sell the NAMBLA magazine. He claims that this was a condition of sale by the previous owner (Ron Dorsey) and states that the NAMBLA publication was not illegal or obscene. He then states:

Even after I had sold the bookstore Ron Dorsey still lived in the area and insisted that the people who took over the bookstore from me carried it. It was still there until those people finally closed the bookstore some time later.

This guy Dorsey must be pretty influential if he can convince two businessmen to do business the way HE wants it. Either that or Peron is lying, and that he sold it without reservation.

For Peron to state that because the NAMBLA material was legal, that makes it OK, only make Peters look better. NAMBLA are the people who promote the trade in child pornography, with their warped and distorted ideas about sexual relationships.

Peters will win this and he knows it. Rodney Hide would be best to let it all die down and get on with making sure ACT has at least one politician in the house come December.