John Armstrong: Brash's email bumbling suggests a death wish

What kind of National Party leader calls a press conference to downplay the contents of a potentially embarrassing email - only to front without a copy of the document or any indication of having read it properly beforehand? A short-lived one.

Don Brash was so underwhelming in his handling of the latest crisis to buffet him and his party that it might seem he has a political death-wish.

National can only weep in frustration. It woke up yesterday morning looking forward to embarrassing Labour in Parliament over the leaking of commercially sensitive Cabinet papers to Telecom. Its leader was instead completely ambushed by another leaked document - one of his own emails.

The email - produced by Winston Peters just when Labour was in need of a diversion - seemed to be somewhat at odds with Dr Brash's categorical denials last July that National's election campaign was being run out of Washington.

Dr Brash dismissed that claim by Labour's Trevor Mallard as a "thundering lie". Mr Mallard was unable to come up with any evidence to back up his assertion.

However, the email written by Dr Brash reveals he attended a lunch in New York a year earlier where two unnamed men who had been actively involved in various Republican Party campaigns expressed a strong interest in helping National's campaign the following year.

The tone of Dr Brash's email, which was sent to his closest advisers, suggests he thought the offer was at least worth thinking about.

Dr Brash is guilty of naivete in putting this in writing. There is nothing wrong with hiring overseas-based election expertise. It is a different matter to be seen contemplating an offer from people who had worked for the Republicans. Given the Republicans' animosity to New Zealand's anti-nuclear policy and National's shifting attachment to that policy, such an offer was bound to be exploited by Labour if it found out.

However, the email alone is insufficient to convict Dr Brash of the main charge - that his denials do not stand up in retrospect. That verdict hinges on what happened next - and whether Mr Peters now comes up with more emails to make a nonsense of Dr Brash's denials.

However, the validity of those denials became almost secondary following the late-afternoon shambles which passed for his press conference.

Dr Brash revealed that National in fact did have two Americans helping its campaign. Stressing they had no involvement in campaign strategy or policy, he repeatedly switched from being sure and then not so sure if they were the same Americans as the ones at the lunch. So confusing were Dr Brash's replies that reporters had to seek clarification a number of times. One of his press secretaries was later dispatched to Parliament's press gallery to make it absolutely clear they were not the same Americans.

The confusion was exacerbated by Dr Brash seemingly being unsure what his email had actually said despite Mr Peters tabling a copy in Parliament more than 90 minutes before the press conference.

Dr Brash did not have a copy to hand and was forced to borrow a reporter's.

Dr Brash's performance is bound to instigate another bout of internal chatter about the leadership. It comes hard on the heels of obvious miscommunication between him and his deputy, Gerry Brownlee, over Maori policy; a u-turn on National's stance on opening Telecom to competition and questions why Dr Brash did not front for National last week over the leaking of the Telecom paper.

National celebrates its 70th anniversary tomorrow night with a slap-up dinner in the refurbished Beehive banquet ball. The champagne has yet to be uncorked. But already it is tasting rather flat.