I was going to do a couple of posts on the exams, and the past week and a bit, but then George Lee went and resigned.

If you are Irish, I assume you have heard about George Lee’s resignation this morning. If you aren’t, or if you have no interest, then I apologise now.

I have to admit, I was somewhat surprised that Lee decided to throw in the towel after a mere eight months in the job.

My first reaction was that he was just throwing a hissy fit – he wasn’t immediately placed on the front bench, and therefore decided that he couldn’t be bothered.

Having watched his appearance on Pat Kenny’s Frontline this evening, I get the impression that it was a bit more thought out than a fit of pique.

But that doesn’t make it any less of a tantrum.

I still can’t decide if I think he made the right decision or not.

I watched Questions & Answers last night, and since we will now be having a second Lisbon treaty referendum for sure, all the usual suspects are present on the panel, Mary Lou McDonald, a government representative, in this case Micheál Martin, and a representative of Libertas. I don’t know who she is, but with Declan Ganley over in Brussels gearing up for the European elections next summer, they had to find someone to fill the space.

In any case, she had nothing positive to say about Lisbon. Nothing constructive to contribute when it came to the discussion on the banking rescue package.

It’s only been in the news for the past two days, but already I’m tired of the bickering, and the b*tching. Yes, someone spent $400 odd on a hair cut, or manicure, or something ridiculous. Yes, they paid for it using taxpayers money. Yes, they should not have.

Should this person be sacked?

No.

Asking for someone’s resignation over a $400 wash and blow-dry is silly, and not a little petty, considering the massive, and flagrant, throwing around of money over the past few years. I mean, €1.7 MILLION for a website that they didn’t even use? €50 MILLION for for a bunch of electronic voting machines that are still costing us money to store? €500 BILLION to prop up the banks that landed us in this recession in the first place?

Leave Mary Harney alone. I don’t agree with a lot of what she says, or much of her policies, but she is one of the least flamboyantly, financially extravagant of the lot in Leinster House.

Let’s start to focus on the real issues.

I didn’t pay attention to it as it happened. I don’t know how I managed to miss the entire thing. I was 18, had just started in university in Trinity College, Dublin. I’ve always had an interest in politics, especially in foreign affairs. All through secondary school, it was the world news pages in the Irish Times that I would turn to first, skipping all the home news.

So, I don’t remember any of it. But I’m sure if I had been more interested at the time I would have been horrified. Just as I was horrified reading Michael Moore’s book “Stupid White Men”, a few years later. Although I know he is somewhat prone to hyperbole. And just as I am still horrified today.

It is scary to think that in, what americans consider, is the foremost democracy in the world, that this kind of manipulation of the electoral system can take place in the 21st century. That people can be struck off the electoral register without reason. That the secretary of state can make arbitrary decision regarding the acceptance of results. That the supreme court can just shut down an election count. It’s appaling.

So, considerin the fact that the 2008 presidential election takes place in about two days time, it is a timely reminder of how many things can go wrong. Or can be made go wrong.

From what I can remember, the 2004 election didn’t have the same level of jury-rigging involved. And now we have had our eight years of Bush. I think it’s time for a change.

What is interesting is to see the reaction to this news. I’m currently watching MSNBC, and you can hear the panic in the presenters’ voices. To say they are surprised may be putting it mildly.

The stock markets are pretty much in freefall. Everywhere.

On the upside, oil is also down. Maybe we can take comfort in that.