It is all so uncomfortable, so unseemly, at the top echelons of politics these days. And there's not a principle, a consistency, being pursued by any party.
The Opposition leader, Enda Kenny, was correct in almost everything he had to say in his considered statement about the Taoiseach Bertie Ahern last weekend. So, too, was the leader of the Labour Party, Eamon Gilmore. Mr Ahern is wounded, suffering a death by a thousand cuts, as the political mantra of the pundits puts it every second day, but should he resign forthwith?
The Taoiseach, as Mr Kenny said, has nobody but himself to blame for his current debilitating dilemma. He is his own victim. He gave one story to the Irish people in his Bryan Dobson interview on RTÉ in his first explanation for receiving monies from businessmen friends while he was serving as minister for finance. And he has given three or four different versions of that dig-out story ever since. Many want to believe the first "dig-out from my friends in hard times" version; but nobody, not even the most loyal Fianna Fáil supporter, believes them all because they simply don't add up.
But Mr Ahern is a clever man, possessing the most astute political antennae of his generation, and he has employed a deliberate strategy to confuse and confound his critics by blinding them with intimate and irrelevant details which have no bearing on the issues being investigated: the Brown Thomas curtain receipts, the bedroom in St Luke's, his "life partner" and all of those intrusive, private, side-shows which he - not the broadsheet or even tabloid media - have introduced into the public domain.
It is all so embarrassing, cringe-making, for the many voters who were prepared - indeed, wanted - to turn a blind eye to these unfolding events back in the autumn of 2006 and during the general election campaign in May, 2007. They wanted to believe that he had a lapse in standards during a difficult time in his life with his bad marital separation.
Mr Ahern's appearances at the Mahon tribunal have exploded that myth. The voters are seeing that, at every twist and turn, Mr Ahern did all in his power to make it difficult for the tribunal. He did not co-operate in the way that he had indicated to the public.
The planning tribunal was set up by the Oireachtas to investigate payments to politicians on planning matters. It is investigating an allegation that property developer, Mr Owen O'Callaghan, paid Mr Ahern £50,000. In the course of this inquiry, the tribunal has unearthed the payments to Mr Ahern as minister for finance. Where did they actually come from?
Mr Ahern seems to have no grasp of the public's incredulity that, as minister for finance, he shouldn't have been receiving payments from anybody at all. The tribunal must be allowed to conclude its inquiry. There is something of the Pauline conversion about the Opposition's demand for Mr Ahern's resignation now.