By Willie Jackson

"OK, OK", I said to one of my talkback callers on Radio Live. "I know JT's a flip-flop but he still would be a great substitute for Labour in the Te Atatu seat."

And I could not have been more serious. Yes I know my bro John Tamihere has upset a few people in the Labour Party and outside of it.

Like the women, when he infamously called them "front bums", and the gays with his constant ravings about heterosexual rights.

Oh yeah, and also the unions that he went to war with to become a Labour MP, and the Jews who he said had to get over the Holocaust.

But that's about it, I think.

Oh no, I forgot about us Maoris!

Yep, old JT really did cook his goose there when he backed the disgraceful Foreshore and Seabed legislation.

In fact, that was the beginning of the end for him.

He was the front man for Labour with the Foreshore and Seabed bill, which was the catalyst in many ways for the creation of the Maori Party. And there's no doubt that JT handed Dr Pita Sharples a second career, when Sharples replaced him as Auckland's Maori Member of Parliment.

But apart from that major stuff-up, OK and a few other little hiccups, JT at times looked like becoming Maoridom's first Prime Minister.

He was declared the great brown hope when he went to Parliament in 1999 having just been named New Zealander of the Year by Metro magazine and the Sunday Star-Times.

And I recall many people saying that there was no doubt that he would go all the way to the top.

Phil Goff would do well to at least consider JT.

He lives and works in the Te Atatu electorate and is a proud Westie.

As the head of the Waipareira Trust, his organisation not only serves urban Maori but all people in need. He more than any other Maori politician, apart from Winston, has great cross-over appeal.

No one in Labour has JT's x-factor and they should forgive JT's relatively minor mistakes as it would give them another chance at the Maori vote.

But perhaps more importantly, it would give Labour a chance to win back ordinary Kiwis who felt so disenfranchised by the politically-correct Clark regime.

Labour should not worry too much about what JT said about them in the past, or in fact what he says about them now. Politics is all about making compromises and cutting deals.

Remember when Jim Anderton said that he wanted to do violence against Helen Clark , then only a few years later he became her deputy Prime Minister?

And after Don Brash's Maori-bashing in 2004, who would have put money on National and the Maori Party getting together a mere four years later?

So a few insults from JT over the years shouldn't be a big deal, should it?

Go on Goffy – swallow your pride, get smart and get JT. Put him in Te Atatu and back into Parliament.

Sunday News, 8th August 2010