Uncle Sam and the Greens

Keith Locke will be very upset reading Wikileaks, according to Stuff:

A discreet diplomatic lunch, a free trip to Washington and assurance of “assistance” from the US Embassy in Wellington have been used to blunt the Green Party’s “radical positions on many issues”, a leaked American diplomatic cable reveals.

The Americans seduced Green co-leaders Metiria Turei and Russel Norman, the latter with a free trip to Washington, and managed, over a lunch, to get a commitment from list MP Kennedy Graham “to turn (to the embassy) for any assistance he may need in the future.”

Accepting Uncle Sam’s free lunchs and trips to Washington will not go down well with the Comrades.

But to be fair to the Greens, these cables are just standard stuff from Embassies. They have to make themselves sound relevant and important, so of course they talk up a meeting or a lunch.