The National Party caucus is in a close huddle this morning to decide the course of action after Collins' shock announcement last night of demoting Bridges over comments he made in front of fellow MP Jacqui Dean five years ago.
The nation's media is on standby as Judith Collins has called on a press conference at 10 am, but the caucus meeting is still not finished.
It would be interesting to see if Collins runs out of luck with the third strike on fellow caucus colleagues, the latest one on Bridges who has been touted in media as planning a tilt on leadership.
An earlier 'strike' at a party colleague was when Collins reprimanded another former leader Todd Muller, again at night, forcing him to announce his decision to relinquish his Bay of Plenty seat by the next election. Similarly, another unveiled attack of Collins a few months ago against Siouxsie Wiles - the respectable microbiologist has not gone down well within National Party.
It seems Collins has a penchant for acting at dusk, often guided by her own instincts and a ruthless streak, than showing even a semblance of collegiality and collective action on behalf of caucus.
This time though, it seems that the tide has turned against Collins as Bridges loyalists like Simon O’Connor and Mark Mitchell have come out in the open, guns blazing, to denounce Collins' “deeply disrespectful” move.
Under a now-repealed but perceived as National's pet "three strikes" policy any repeated offense for the third time warrants tough punishment and it seems Judith Collins might run out of luck under the "there strikes" policy and due for a tougher punishment.
More to come..
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