KEY POINTS:
Gordon Copeland has now cemented for himself a role in Parliament, to provide ongoing lessons in "how not to..." in, well, most things he does.
His own resignation from United Future back in May was always going to take some beating - he left because of the anti-smacking bill but then missed the final vote against it later that night. He resigned to become an independent and then gave his vote to National saying he wanted to become its "49th MP."
Today he out-did himself.
After Bishop Brian Tamaki announced in Auckland that Destiny Party was folding and that leader Richard Lewis would be co-leader of a new political party, Copeland gave his views on his way into the House at Question Time.
He praised Tamaki as a man with a big heart for putting aside his "baby" to work towards one single political vehicle with Christian values for the 2008 election [that will be the one you denied yesterday was being formed when my colleague Claire Trevett rang you?]
"There were aspects however of today's announcement which took me completely by surprise," Copeland said, " the main one of course is the announcement of Richard Lewis as the co-leader[ that will be of the party you expect the public to put their confidence in]." "I think I can probably live with that, but the reality is I have got five years of parliamentary experience." [We had forgotten].
"I will, of course, be the other co-leader of the new party."
"So From my point of view quite a lot of mentoring will have to happen."
[Of you by Lewis, surely.]
"I think from one point of view if you look at it from the fact that I'm an older Pakeha and he is a younger Maori, that I am a Catholic and he is a protestant, that there are some aspects to it which are quite good [you missed the comparisons with eptitude and competence]."
Copeland is not completely without merit. For all that he has mucked up his short career as an independent MP, he comes with an outside team of highly motivated, well financed network in Future New Zealand - the Christian party that joined Peter Dunne's United Party in 2000.
It will be an interesting marriage with the former Destiny Party.
Destiny is disciplined, and its followers too, dig deeply for their leaders.
It won 0.62 per cent of the vote last election, not much after the huge campaign it mounted over the Civil Union Bill.
It picked up profile this year at the height of the anti-smacking bill and registered more than United Future and Act in the Herald DigiPoll.
That has motivated the Christians, as did the fact that in 1996 a Christian Coalition of Graeme Lee's Christian Democrats and Graham Capill's Christian Heritage won 4.3 per cent of the vote, very close to the 5 per cent threshold.
If the new Christian vehicle - yet to be announced - does well but not well enough, Labour will be advantaged and probably the Maori Party.
It is safe bet it will take votes from the right, not the left and then unless it makes the 5 per cent or gets an electorate seat, all its votes will be discounted.
The unseen danger the new "Destiny" could have is on the socially conservative New Zealand First's vote.
As a play on the MMP calculator shows, taking even a fraction of NZ First's vote can make the difference between NZ First surviving.
If New Zealand First isn't in the next Parliament, the Maori Party is more likely to hold the balance of power.
