How, one wonders, will Brian Cowen and Michael McDowell shape up to each other across the Cabinet table? Both have been called Rottweilers and it is said that on one occasion Cowen called McDowell a Rasputin, but Quidnunc can't pin down that quote. What is on the Dail record is the following exchange at the height of the Brendan Smyth affair of November 16th, 1994:
McDowell: Your party will have abandoned the pair of you (Cowen and Albert Reynolds) by that stage.
Cowen: What do you know about Fianna Fail? Your seed, breed and generation were anti- Fianna Fail.
McDowell: You are dead meat. Cowen: You would not know Fianna Fail if it hit you in the face.