Whether Ms Turei finally crumbled under a tsunami of righteous indignation from those who cling to old-fashioned values like honesty or bade farewell in an effort to spare her family from public scrutiny - the writer has seen no evidence of such scrutiny; someone said last week that if anyone believed that he had a bridge they might like to buy - her demise has revealed a rift in opinion regarding how far one is entitled to push the ends to justify the means.
Her fellow Green MPs have certainly stuck by her, and continue to do so, which some see as telling us more about their characters than we would really like to know.
The irony is that Messrs Graham and Clendon, widely regarded as decent blokes, hard-working and effective members of the Green Party caucus for nine and eight years respectively, should find themselves unwanted because of their distaste for fraud. Even after Ms Turei resigned the party made it clear that they would not be welcome back.
Perhaps that simply means that returning them to the list (which Mr Clendon did not seek) would suggest that the party accepts that they were right and Ms Turei wrong. Perhaps it means that their principles have no currency within the party. Perhaps it means they are too male and too old to represent a party that increasingly values young, fresh and female. Nice guys really do come last in politics.
Who knows? And apart from those who value honesty and principles in a politician, who really cares? Plenty of us, as it turns out. The reaction to the Green Party's defence of dishonesty, however long ago and whatever the motivation, has been gratifying in that it has left no doubt that New Zealanders still do demand old-fashioned values.
Those who have leapt to Ms Turei's defence with the argument that she is receiving treatment reserved for Maori, women and beneficiaries in general should be ashamed of themselves, although they do have a point when they note that others whose principles are not beyond question continue to occupy elevated positions in parliament.
Bill English and his parliamentary housing supplement spring to mind, even if it did not involve criminality. And Cabinet colleague Judith Collins had a wee problem not so long ago.
The most notable victim of double standards in recent times, if that's what these are, was probably Hone Harawira, whose excursions to Alice Springs and Paris generated widespread politically motivated scorn, from within the House and beyond it.
Mr Harawira is not the only one who did not enjoy the public support afforded Ms Turei, however. Tukuroirangi Morgan paid a much higher price for his boxer shorts than the $89 they reportedly cost the taxpayer, and David Garrett slunk out of parliament in abject disgrace in 2010 after it came to light that he had obtained a passport in the name of a dead infant.
That transgression was 25 years old when it became public knowledge, of similar vintage to Ms Turei's self-confessed fraud.
The difference in the Morgan and Garrett cases was the absence of smug arrogance that many saw in Ms Turei's defence of her actions. They did not claim to have been acting out of deep-seated concern for the lot of the poor, some sort of guinea pig who was testing the theory that beneficiaries can in fact make life more bearable, or in Ms Turei's case survivable, if they don't take their legal declarations too seriously.
It's drawing a very long bow, of course, to suggest that Ms Turei was laying the foundation for a political career a quarter of a century into the future when she lied about her circumstances. And unlike Messrs Morgan and Garrett, there is the uneasy feeling in some circles that we still don't know the whole story about her circumstances as a young solo mother and law student.
Ms Turei won't be the first fibber to have discovered that some people are reluctant to accept their word.
The most we can take from all this perhaps is that politics is no longer a noble occupation, if it ever was. That's hardly a revelation, although it's a bit harsh on many people of genuine integrity. And who among us would be totally relaxed about relentless scrutiny of our own past actions?
Meanwhile the promises keep coming thick and fast. National has seemingly discovered that the non-crises of recent years really do warrant attention, a rejuvenated Labour Party has resorted to its tried and true tactic of promising to tax everything that moves, Winston Peters rightly persists in tapping into deeply disgruntled regions, ACT continues to bemoan the intention of every other party to spend more and more of our money, and newcomer Gareth Morgan seems intent on further entrenching social welfare.
Few, with the notable exception of New Zealand First, seem too fussed about finding ways and means by which we might lift our productivity, preferring a variety of options for re-allocating what we already earn. It is unlikely though, albeit not out of the question, that any of the contenders will implode as the Greens have. And that should give us some cause for hope.
We would like to think that our politicians are honest and decent, that they enter politics with a genuine desire to be of service. That might be quaintly optimistic, but we can continue to hope, and reject a blatantly lower standard.
The worry is that the Green Party has stood so resolutely behind its disgraced co-leader, and even now refuses to accept, publicly at least, that her actions have disqualified her from any further role.
It maintains that her resignation was founded purely on a desire to protect her family, and continues to portray her as a victim. In reality Ms Turei has done extraordinary harm, not only to her party's immediate political future but more importantly to her chosen cause.
This unseemly furore has not helped the poor, who were supposedly the intended beneficiaries of her confession, but has harmed them.
This debacle, if it has achieved anything, will have hardened existing attitudes towards social welfare and the people who avail themselves of it. Those who believe beneficiaries are lazy, dishonest people who take everything they possibly can and give nothing back will feel vindicated.
Those who portray beneficiaries as the victims of a harsh economic system that cares not how many it destroys in pursuit of wealth for others will find it even more difficult to be heard.
That is Metiria Turei's real crime. Her pride has inflicted enormous damage on the cause in which she so patently believes, a reality that neither she nor her fellow travellers can see.
