SIDESHOW BOB - THE POLITICAL CHANCER

TVNZ's Breakfast is broadcasting from Cathedral Square in Christchurch tomorrow.

This will give the loathsome Paul Henry another opportunity to paint a fellow National Party supporter in the best possible light. Expect more nauseating praise for Sideshow Bob.

When he was last in Christchurch Henry was comparing Sideshow to former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani.

You can, of course, count on Bob to show up for Breakfast - in his Canterbury 'quake' jacket with the Tui beer logos. And you can count on him to wax lyrically about the 'great efforts of Cantabrians' and blah blah blah.

In contrast Sideshow was nowhere to be seen when disgruntled and increasingly angry Avonside quake victims protested in the street yesterday. He let one of his council flunkeys face the music instead.

Said one angry resident : 'The bottom line is we have little children in unsafe houses with unfit conditions and we can't get answers.'

Sideshow Bob is putting his own political survival ahead of addressing the real needs of Christchurch's quake victims.

Bob has laughably claimed that he wasn't 'aware' of the plight of Avonside residents. And if you believe that you'll believe just about anything.

He is only showing up at events where he can extract the maximum amount of positive media coverage and consequently he hasn't been seen in the suburbs that have been the most hardest hit by the quake.

He's even refusing to debate the issues with rival Jim Anderton. The 'Mike Yardley Show' on Newstalk ZB has been trying to organise another on-air debate between Sideshow and Anderton. Bob though will only appear on the radio if its to talk about quake issues and only if Jim Anderton isn't invited.

Remember - this is the same Sideshow Bob who just a fortnight ago was claiming he was going to be more 'transparent' and more 'accountable' to the good people of Christchurch.

Despite Bob's best efforts to exploit the earthquake for his own political ends, it hasn't been as beneficial to Bob as many media commentators have commented - like TV3's Duncan 'Scoop' Garner who a couple of weeks advised Anderton to give up and just withdraw from the mayoral race.

A Christchurch Star poll shows that Bob leads Jim Anderton by the tiniest of margins - 35% to 34%. Of the 100 people polled, 28% said they hadn't decided who they were going to vote for.

Given that Sideshow has been all over the media in recent weeks, this is an encouraging result for Anderton and we may well find that Bob's increasingly obvious mercenary behaviour will begin to see the polls swing back to Anderton.