That the democratic leader of the state would acquiesce to this is as shocking as the original abuse of power perpetrated by the Minister for Justice. It's one thing for McDowell to behave like a latter-day Sean Doherty. It's another for the Taoiseach to go along with it.

Even Charlie Haughey didn't possess a neck that hard.

But it's easy to see where Ahern is coming from. The opposition and large elements of the media have allowed the abuse of power to go unanswered. The furore has died down. The affair has been spun away.

What matter democratic rights and norms when the spin battle has been won?

Quick recap: Connolly, a former journalist, now director of the investigative body, the Centre for Public Inquiry, was interviewed by gardai in 2002 about an allegation that he travelled to Colombia on a false passport. This alleged trip was connected to the Colombia Three. A file on Connolly was sent to the DPP, who decided it didn't merit prosecution unless new evidence came to light.

Following McDowell's intervention, the DPP no longer has that option and has thus been undermined.

On RTE's This Week programme last Sunday, the Taoiseach said that McDowell's actions were not linked to Connolly's role in the CPI.

"What Michael McDowell did had the support of the cabinet, " he said. "The issue in this case, regardless of whatever smokescreen was put up, is that a false passport was apparently used."

Does Ahern take us all for fools? McDowell's approval by the cabinet was retrospective. The cabinet was not informed that he was going to leak the garda file or that he was going to name Connolly in a Dail question.

Once it was done, the ministers decided to go along with him. Why not, when the net result was the elimination of a turbulent inquisitor?

The assertion that the affair had nothing to do with the CPI is dubious. Mary Harney has stated that she believes that a body like the CPI should have no role in public life. Is it just a coincidence that her party colleague decided to take out its director?

Then there is Ahern's "a false passport was apparently used". Apparently?

McDowell used the national parliament to brand Connolly a criminal as a stated fact.

Now the Taoiseach classifies it as a supposition. Is this the standard used to blacken a citizen's name in parliament?

In justifying his actions, McDowell waved the law around like a lucky bag. He says he acted under the Official Secrets Act to protect the state from a threat.

There have been occasions when a government could legitimately suspend normal democratic fare: 1922 was one; so was 1939. At a very hard push, our way of life tottered dangerously in 1972.

But now? Does anybody believe that the state was under threat from Connolly?

The cops certainly didn't.

A private investigator, hired by the CPI's benefactor, Chuck Feeney, reported that the gardai gave Connolly a clean bill of health. Did McDowell perceive this threat off the top of his head?

The most worrying aspect to the whole affair is not the minister's conduct, but the reaction from within and without the government.

Occasionally, the system throws up politicians like Doherty and McDowell, who can't help but abuse the power vested in them.

Heretofore, other ministers, backbenchers, the opposition and the media could be relied on to hold the errant incumbent to account. Not any more. If the price of standing up for democratic norms is the risk of being branded a Provo fellow traveller, most head for the hills. The only one pursuing the affair is the Greens' Dan Boyle, who is inquiring whether McDowell's statement of justification to the Dail was a breach of standing orders.

Last month, a question was posed on RTE's Questions & Answers: "Who is right, Michael McDowell or Frank Connolly?" The question missed the point but conformed to the prevailing spin. The protagonists in the affair were not McDowell and Connolly, but McDowell and the state. And according to the result, McDowell has triumphed over long established democratic institutions. Good for him. Bad for anybody who cares about the basic tenets of democracy. No amount of spin can wash away that damage.