John Armstrong: Moment of 'struth' sees Dotcom bubble burst

Kim Dotcom at the Moment of Truth event. Photo / Brett Phibbs

Hell hath no fury like a voter who feels he or she has been treated like a fool.

The political left was already paying a heavy price at this election for displaying the characteristics which leave voters stone cold - namely disunity, political incompetence and not a little arrogance.

The left may now pay an even bigger price on Saturday thanks to Kim Dotcom's Moment of Truth evaporating into a Moment of Struth - as in "struth, was that all he had to reveal" after months of squashing much else far more worthy of debate out of the political picture.

So robust was Dotcom's evidence of prime ministerial untruths supposed to be that it would sink John Key faster than the Bismarck. Instead it is Dotcom who is now facing a backlash for failing to deliver.

So far, that backlash is confined to media who have been strung along for months. Voters may be more tolerant - but only up to a point. They take objection to being hoodwinked. Perhaps the only saving grace for Internet-Mana is that in treating voters like fools, Dotcom has shown himself to be an even bigger one.

He is now a national laughing stock. But it could have been worse. At least someone in the Internet-Mana camp was smart enough not to allow Dotcom to wreck Monday night's compelling testimony from whistle-blower Edward Snowden and journalist Glenn Greenwald regarding whether or not there is or has been mass surveillance of New Zealanders by the Government Communications Security Bureau.

Likewise it was also smart to send Dotcom's "evidence" against Key to Parliament's Speaker for reference to its privileges committee. This consists of just one email deemed to be a fake which implicates Key in a conspiracy which would have seen Dotcom extradited to the US to face copyright theft and money laundering charges following him being granted New Zealand residency. The ruse by Internet-Mana's leaders has given them an excuse not to talk about the email on the grounds that it is now part of a judicial process.

It was a cynical move - as cynical as Key declassifying previously highly-sensitive documents to defend himself from the accusations of Snowden and Greenwald, something to which Hone Harawira and Laila Harre took strong exception.

But if you declare you have the means of turfing a prime minister out of office, you have to be pretty naive to think you are not going to get both barrels in return when you fail.

What the left have miscalculated yet again is that however worthy their pursuit of Key on the matter of surveillance, it is not something that excites the silent majority. They are fed up. On Saturday, they may exact awful revenge - and it will be Opposition parties who will be in their sights, not Key.

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