IT was a nice try, Drapier thought. He is not sure, however, that Bertie will get away with it. Some in, Labour wouldn't half mind it - to be allowed fly free as a bird above the electoral fray, deigning eventually to favour one or other of the eager suitors, depending on how the votes fall and what's on offer.
Drapier is, of course, talking about Bertie Ahern's weekend flier about doing business with Labour after the next election. From Bertie's point of view it all makes eminent sense. If he is able to choose from either the Progressive Democrats or Labour after the election then he has to be Taoiseach and that's what the game is all about, getting back into the winners' enclosure.
There is, of course, a subtext. It's called transfers. Fianna Fail wants at all costs to prevent a preelection pact between Fine Gael and Labour because Fianna Fail desperately needs not just a half dozen or more Labour seats but Labour transfers as well.
Traditionally, Fianna Fail has failed to get these transfers, and even with the new found amity between Fianna Fail and the PDs, less than half the PD voters have yet got to the stage where they can with an easy conscience transfer to Fianna Fail.
That's the nub of Fianna Fail's problem as it searches for the holy grail of an overall majority. The idea from Bertie's perspective would be to isolate Fine Gael while extending an olive branch to Labour and the PDs in the hope of getting the badly needed transfers.
As Drapier said, it was a nice try, but there are a few realities in the way. For a start, as Pat Upton pointed out, Fianna Fail can hardly expect at one and the same time to "target" his seat and have his goodwill.
Pat Upton's suspicions and reluctance are widespread enough in the Labour Party to give the party strategists cause for reflection. And for Bertie to talk of doing business with perfidious Labour runs the risk of giving a stick to some on his own side to beat him with, especially if some upcoming events revive the bad memories of their last breakup in government.
It may be silly season stuff as we await the return of real life, but considerations such as this are going to dominate the thinking of all parties over the coming months. As things stand the only two parties which won't do business with each other are Fianna Fail and Fine Gael, even though they have more in common than either has with the other parties.
Drapier feels, however, that the electorate - and the media - may not indulge any of us to the extent of allowing a lengthy preelection coyness about ultimate intentions and may well demand a much more upfront explicit approach, signalled well in advance.
IN ANY event we are still a long way off such decisions. A great deal can and will happen between now and then, and it's better not to count any chickens before all the eggs are even laid.
The current electoral uncertainty was given an added twist this week with the unexpected announcement that neither Gerry Collins nor John Ryan will run again. And in both cases the decisions appear to be definite. Drapier was surprised by one but not by the other, as he will explain.
GERRY Collins was the surprise. The word among the wise in here was that Gerry would be a reluctant candidate, but a candidate nonetheless. The story was to be as follows.
The pressure from the grass roots, combined with a personal appeal from Bertie to put the party and the country first, would persuade Gerry that one more sacrifice was called for and Gerry would reluctantly but patriotically answer the call.
And yes, of course, as an even greater sacrifice Gerry would consider a senior position in Bertie's Cabinet, or maybe even line up to succeed Padraig Flynn in Brussels. Drapier had the script all but written and now Gerry goes and spoils it all.
So why is Gerry leaving us? Drapier thinks the reasons are straightforward. Gerry likes the European Parliament, enjoys the status that institution gives to exministers and the influence he wields as leader of the Fianna Fail group there.
He likes the emphasis on policy, the sense of playing in a bigger league, the freedom from perpetual harassment, which is the lot of most rural TDs. And, of course, both the money and the facilities are very much better. Not to mention the travel.
The truth of the matter is that, any of our politicians who experience Europe never want to look back. The European Parliament is as near a political Nirvana as makes no difference, and for most people given the choice there is no choice.
The other reason, as Drapier sees it, is that Gerry has outgrown Leinster House. He's been here almost 30 years, and in political terms that's a long time. Gerry has seen them come and seen them go, and it's no secret that he was never happy with Albert Reynolds. Indeed, the antagonism there is deep and goes back a good decade or more before Albert became leader and Taoiseach.
Drapier will miss Gerry. He is above all a consummate pro. Gerry's political cuteness and astuteness would rival those of the boy from Bruree himself, Eamon de Valera.
From the days when he ran student politics in UCD in a way that would do credit to Mayor Daley or Boss Curley, when his legendary "machine" controlled virtually every student organisation from the stamp collecting society to the sodality, Gerry's organisational skills and his ability to command enormous personal loyalty have been extraordinary. Indeed, the last thing Drapier will say about Gerry is to never say never. He could yet be back to us. Drapier even has a script handy.
In electoral terms the retirement of both Gerry and Michael J. Noonan could open things up in West Limerick. It won't be easy in this most cast iron of Fianna Fail constituencies, where at one stage in the 1950s Fianna Fail held all three seats.
Of late, both Michael Finucane and Dan Neville have been making serious inroads through persistent hard work. West Limerick now offers the possibility, but no more than that, of an upset. It will be interesting, too, to see if the current hurling mania gets Tom Ryan on to the ticket alongside Gerry's brother, Michael. Drapier wouldn't bet on it. Nor will Rory Kiely.
John Ryan's decision was not so unexpected. John himself was somewhat surprised to win his seat back at the last election and with the drop in Labour support he would have been hard pressed to hold it next time out.
The problem for Labour is that there is no obvious successor in North Tipperary, and indeed a fair bit of John's vote was a personal one. The fact of the matter now is that if Fianna Fail doesn't take two of the three seats in North Tipp then it is going nowhere.