There's surprisingly little comment in papers today about Charles Clarke's interview in the Daily Mail at the weekend which he used to have a go at Gordon Brown.
There's plenty of nasty stuff and the key quote - "Gordon must stop being a ditherer. He lacks courage. He looks at his papers, dithers and isn't sure" - could have come straight from a David Cameron press release (which is probably where it will end up).
At the Daily Telegraph's Three Line Whip, Iain Martin says that Clarke has been going on about Brown's failings for so long that he's become "the Blairite lounge club bore" on the subject.
Clarke certainly spoke out about this at length before Brown became prime minister. And there were some rumblings about policy the week before last. But this is the first time he has criticised Brown's leadership in personal terms. More importantly, I think it's the first time anyone of significance in the Labour party has attacked this prime minister in this way.
In a different climate, the dithering charge wouldn't stick. If Brown were still 10 points ahead in the polls, you could imagine the commentariat lauding his considered approach to decision-making, in contrast to the back-of-the-envelope approach sometimes adopted by his predecessor.
The prime minister, after all, has the power to authorise a nuclear attack and so perhaps there is something to be said for a bit of dithering. But, after the election-that-never-was and Northern Rock, dithering has been firmly established as a negative. Clarke's comments will undoubtedly help the Tories.
Interestingly, Clarke also took at pop at Tony Blair for earning money so shamelessly. "I don't think what [Blair] is doing does politics any good. In fact, I wish he wasn't doing it," he said. Again, I can't think of any senior figures in Labour who have said that publicly.
You could see this as evidence that Clarke is just becoming an embittered rent-a-gob. I think he's smarter than that, but that's beside the point, which is that embittered rent-a-gobs can damage a prime minister.
John Major faced a series of mini leadership crises that were often triggered by figures of far less consequence than Charles Clarke. Brown was fortunate that the Mail buried this interview on page 42. He won't always be this lucky.
