IT was all so embarrassing.
Whatever about the tax implications, the conflicts of interest and compound interest rates; whatever other conundrums we are being hit with in this saga, the one thing that stands out is that everybody is absolutely mortified by the whole affair.

Charlie Haughey did this type of thing much better. Never apologise until your back is scraping the wall and always assume an air of barely masked superiority.

What we can't handle is Bertie appearing all thin and exhausted, getting emotional and telling us far too much about what went on behind his separation.

The air that hung around the Dail chamber yesterday was not one of savage murderous intent but plain naked embarrassment.

You got the feeling that if Bertie even mentioned the ex-wife and kids, they'd be out the door in a flash, holding their ears and crying "enough, enough".

What's wrong with Irish politics is not, as Enda Kenny claimed, our politicians' refusal to admit it when they are wrong, it's just that we have no stomach for the job.

If we were like the Brits, we'd be much more keen to stick in a hand, get up to our oxters in blood and triumphantly pull out a kidney or two.

There's Bertie - up to his knees in the brown stuff and you'd see more enthusiastic volunteers for bare-handed muck-raking at a sewage convention than there was from the Opposition yesterday.

Backbenchers sat there and cringed silently as the party leaders went through the motions, made the right sounds of outrage but all the while, there seemed to be the unspoken feeling that while the questions had to be answered, did we really have to know about the embarassing family stuff.

Outside Leinster House, a half-hearted protest by a small gaggle with assorted gripes set the tone for what was to come. "I'm here to protest against our government, the Taoiseach and our religion," was the sum of it, as one man told the awaiting press.

Inside, there seemed to be the feeling that Bertie had taken a needless step too far and humiliated himself in his TV interview.

It wasn't even a full house as he arrived for Leader's Questions to speak out on recent revelations that his friends had organised a whip-around while he was down on his luck. Arriving bang on time, all eyes turned to the Taoiseach as he appeared in the chamber as the clock struck a quarter to four and, pointedly, Liz O'Donnell made it her business to very publicly shake his hand on the steps.

Bertie permitted himself a small smile when he saw Enda Kenny poised like a greyhound to get the boot in. Stand up and admit you're wrong. Be a man, the Fine Gael leader instructed him.

The only thing was, Bertie doesn't think there is anything wrong with having friends who would help him out of a fix.

"The truth is more powerful than even the most baseless of political attacks," he said, sounding rather like Martin Luther King.

There was absolutely no confict of interest and he owed no tax. "I have served the State honestly and I challenge anybody to prove otherwise," he said.

His voice dropped to become almost inaudible at times, but Bertie stuck to his guns and went over much of the ground he had covered in his TV interview.

In the middle of it all, Brian Cowen drifted in casually as if the matter were of no more consequence that a tea party. Pat Rabbitte had even less of an appetite for the affair.

Rather stiffly, he told the Taoiseach that he was sure it had been a difficult interview to give and that nobody wanted to intrude on his domestic affairs.

On the other hand, Bertie would have to stop bleating on about being a common man who stands on Hill 16, he instructed. He's been driven around the country since 1987 and never has to put his hand in his pocket for petrol.

In other words - stay off Labour's patch, Bertie. They've taken out a trademark on the Common Man (patent pending).

Thank God for Joe Higgins, who injected a little colour into the whole affair with a little piece of fiction in the form of a letter to the 'Drumcondra Twelve'.

"Ah Jaysis lads. Youse'll have me in big trouble if you don't take back the fifty grand. My circumstances have improved and I'll have 50 journalists traipsing around after me if word gets out.

Signed, Bertie.

PS, Tell Paddy the Plasterer to stay clear of Callely's house - he's in enough trouble over the painter."

Even Bertie laughed at that one. Thank God.