Keneally can run but she can’t hide from Obeid stench as ex-premier loses cool on Sky

Sky News’ Samantha Maiden gave Labor’s candidate in the Bennelong by-election, Kristina Keneally, quite a grilling yesterday:

Kristina Keneally has refused to rule out taking Sam Dastyari’s Senate seat if she does not win the Bennelong by-election on Saturday, in a fiery interview during which she was also grilled on her record as NSW premier.

The Sky News host read out this doozy on air. A quote from Sam Dastyari in the first edition of Kate McClymont and Linton Besser’s He Who Must Be Obeid, August 15, 2014:

Kristina Keneally was so close to Eddie Obeid. Unequivocally, she wouldn’t have been there if it wasn’t for Eddie.

Keneally wasn’t very happy. The former NSW premier on Sky News, yesterday:

Sam Maiden, what you are reading to me was not in the second edition of that book, and you’re also not reading to your viewers what Sam Dastyari said on the floor of the parliament after that book came out.

McClymont and Besser’s first edition was pulped, but mainly due to other concerns with the text. ABC News online, August 29, 2014:

In the book, the authors … refer to a … Chris Brown, who they alleged “was in business” with the Obeid family … According to Mr Brown, they have the wrong man and have mistaken him for someone with the same name, born years earlier.

Alas, Keneally couldn’t tell viewers what Dastyari said on the floor of parliament. Keneally on Sky News, continued:

You can look it up, Sam. I’m not here to do your work for you.

Here’s what Shanghai Sam actually said. The soon to be ex-Labor senator in the Australian Senate, November 16, 2014:

I apologise unreservedly to both Kate McClymont and Kristina Keneally for wrongly leaving the impression that Kristina’s relationship with Mr Eddie Obeid was anything other than the normal interaction between a party leader and a backbench MP.

See what he did there? The Australian online, yesterday:

Senator Dastyari apologised unreservedly for the comments on the floor of parliament, but at no stage denied that he had made them.

Keneally did ultimately help bring down Obeid and his band of merry men. Keneally on Sky News, continued:

I make the point that my evidence before ICAC was a key part of finding convictions, and the ICAC has praised my evidence …

But just remember the last thing Nathan Rees said as NSW premier. Keneally’s predecessor as NSW Labor leader in Sydney, December 3, 2009:

Should I not be premier by the end of this day, let there be no doubt … that any challenger will be a puppet of Eddie Obeid and Joe Tripodi.

Remember Keneally brought back Obeid’s mate Ian Macdonald after Rees had sacked him. The Australian, December 8, 2009:

Mr Macdonald takes on … the Central Coast, a portfolio that was held by the dumped premier Nathan Rees.

How did that one turn out? The Australian, June 2:

Corrupt former NSW Labor minister Ian Macdonald will join his disgraced ex-parliamentary colleague Eddie Obeid behind bars after being sentenced to 10 years imprisonment, with a non-parole period of seven years …