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He probably did not mean it to come out in quite the way it did. But Gerry Brownlee found the perfect adjective to describe National's wary mood yesterday.
"I don't want to sound like we are particularly touchy about this," National's deputy leader told Parliament after Assistant Speaker Ross Robertson had ruled Labour MPs could refer to Don Brash's email problem despite the High Court-imposed gagging order.
Touchy. Nervous. Even panic-stricken in one or two cases as National waits to see whether Nicky Hager's book, which exposes the party's inner workings, proves to be as damaging as some have suggested and consequently fatal to Don Brash's leadership.
Dr Brash was absent from Parliament - he was attending a National Party board meeting - leaving his colleagues to maintain a business-as-usual front in the face of Government interjections which centred on one word - emails.
When National MPs teased Winston Peters about his Supergold Card which will offer discounts to the elderly, the New Zealand First leader cleverly shifted attention back on Dr Brash's predicament.
"Given that Parliament's most prominent superannuitant is about to retire, we are hoping to negotiate a special deal on, for example, fleecy pyjamas, corned beef, and frozen peas."
For once, however, Mr Peters was not in National's sights. With Dr Brash possibly lifting the injunction on the book today after being persuaded it had been a big mistake, National had to make the most of yesterday's sitting to sully Hager's credibility in advance of publication.
The researcher's prediction of Tuesday when he unveiled the book was on the mark. When you upset political parties big time, they come after you. There was nothing subtle about the attempted damage control.
Hager was variously denigrated as a "peace activist trying to make his peace with Helen Clark", "a left-wing stirrer" and a "media whore".
Bill English slammed Hager as someone who "joins the dots and creates a vast right-wing conspiracy out of what is the normal business of a political party". Every time Hager had written a book the contents had not lived up to the advance billing.
Mr Brownlee predicted the "hollow" allegations in The Hollow Men would not stand up and the book would become a joke.
However, if the emails on which the book is largely based are nowhere as embarrassing as Hager is claiming, why did National's chief whip Lindsay Tisch try to stop Phil Goff mentioning them when he spoke?
Mr Tisch argued that Dr Brash's injunction was only an interim one and the matter was sub judice until there was a full hearing on the matter.
However, the sub judice rule is usually only applied to stopping MPs discussing pending criminal or civil trials. Labour's Russell Fairbrother, a practising barrister, pointed out the injunction was permanent and could be debated by Parliament until formally challenged.
Mr Goff had earlier told the House he could not recall any political leader taking out an injunction in order to muzzle his own actions and views on public issues. But then again he had never seen a leader so scared as Dr Brash, who knew his "deceit and double standards" were about to be exposed.
