Being affable isn't enough

In media appearances, I've usually found Senator Sam Dastyari affable enough, and pretty quick witted.  But I've said before that his cosying up to the inflexible, immature, ideologue of an accidental Senator with a myriad of bad ideas (David Leyonhjelm) in his already forgotten "Nanny State Enquiry" was a big warning sign of a lack of judgement.  Sam's reasons for being deputy chair on the enquiry:

Up and coming Labor Senator Sam Dastyari has agreed to be the inquiry's deputy chair because he said it would "provoke a fascinating moral debate".

"This is probably going to be Australia's largest ever inquiry into vice," Senator Dastyari said.

He said the issues being examined range from "reasonable to ridiculous" but declared Australians who "hold majority views" should always be prepared to "justify the case for regulation".

...just sounded like insincere posturing to me.   I presume it was involvement in that which also means Sinclair Davidson,  who has such a political tin ear that he thought Bronwyn Bishop was a good speaker, became a Sam supporter.  

Sam's latest problems confirm he's just to unreliable to be a Labor Senator, or even an independent one.   The summary:

Dastyari took money for himself from a Chinese businessman and Labor donor, Huang Xiangmo, who Labor (and the government) had been warned had links to the Chinese government. He disavowed the Australian government position, and the Labor position, on Chinese expansionism at a press conference, standing alongside Huang. He misled the public about the nature of those remarks. And he warned Huang his phone could be tapped, and, when visiting his house, suggested they talk outside and leave their phones inside in case they were being bugged by ASIO.

I don't see why the public, or Labor, should ever trust him again.  He has terrible judgement and has made himself look eminently bribe-able.  He should resign.  Some corporate dill will soon enough  employ him to act as their talking head.

And finally, in a very, very rare event, I will approve one of Chris Kenny's tweets on the topic, because it is genuinely pretty funny: