AUSTRALIA: If a week is a long time in politics, the past few days have been almost a lifetime for John Brogden. Last weekend, as leader of the New South Wales opposition Liberal Party, his future looked rosy.
His party was ahead in the polls and he looked destined to become premier of the state at the next election.
But late on Tuesday night the 36-year-old was found in his constituency office after an apparent suicide attempt.
On Sunday it had emerged that Mr Brogden had called the wife of recently retired NSW premier Bob Carr a "mail-order bride". Mr Brogden made the comment about Malaysian-born Helena Carr while drinking at a function on August 6th. At the same function he also grabbed one female journalist's bottom and made suggestive comments to another.
Mr Brogden initially denied the allegations and blamed the Labor Party for "a desperate and personal attack on me". But within hours he admitted it and apologised to everyone concerned. On Monday morning he resigned as Liberal leader.
On Tuesday morning, with the only career he has ever had in tatters, Mr Brogden began life on the backbenches.
Fourteen hours later, in a reported drug- and alcohol-induced stupor, he was found with self-inflicted stab wounds.
During the day he had been made aware that further revelations were to be printed in the Sydney tabloid, the Daily Telegraph.
The Telegraph's banner front page yesterday was "Brogden's sordid past". Its late second edition lead was: "Brogden in suicide bid". His "sordid past" allegedly included propositioning two other female journalists for group sex during a boozy Christmas party in his office in 2003.