Pity the poor Green Party. No wait, sorry, that's wrong. Pity the poor Green Party press office, as it can't be easy having someone like Paul Gogarty rampaging around the corridors of power like a Tasmanian devil jacked up on Red Bull. Following on from the bestselling Paul Gogarty and the Chamber of Unparliamentary Language and Paul Gogarty and the Prisoner of Twitter, we had Paul Gogarty and the Half Baked Excuse for Taking His Baby to Work.

Last Monday, as the Greens began what was probably the most important press briefing in their history, Gogarty, a TD for Dublin Mid-West, sat his baby daughter on his knee as the national and international media looked on. Gogarty claimed he couldn't get childcare at that time and opted to look after the child himself instead of handing her over to someone else for half an hour. Personally, I find it hard to believe that it was a mere coincidence that this just so happened at the same time as a major news event, but even if we are to take Gogarty at his word, his actions are still unacceptable.

The morning after, Gogarty gave a hammy explanation on Ryan Tubridy's programme on 2fm. This was followed by a spree on Liveline, where the story really took off. Gogarty dropped enough clangers to almost physically dent one's radio. There was the one where he said he "gives a shit about people", but the best was when he said that his job wasn't in the Dáil, but in his constituency, unwittingly revealing the primary problem with Irish politics: that nothing gets done in Leinster House because everyone is too busy opening shopping centres, going to funerals and looking down drains for their constituents. Twitter, Gogo's stomping ground, had a field day. "New idea for a TV show: Digging Bigger Holes With Paul Gogarty" offered one wag, with others suggesting the baby was there to give advice to the Greens.

Gogarty explained that he couldn't have given the child to someone she didn't know, and that if he had left the room she would have been crying for her daddy. Well, Mister, welcome to what tens of thousands of parents have to do every morning of the week across this country. They don't have the luxury of clocking into unprofessional workplaces that actually allow them to take their kids in. They don't have the luxury either of easily accessible and subsidised childcare which those working in Leinster House have at their disposal. And most of them certainly aren't on salaries equivalent to the basic rate for a TD, which is, unbelievably, just shy of €100,000.

Gogarty's stunt was obviously wrong on multiple levels. It was unprofessional, unsafe, and uninsurable, among other things. After listing a ream of reasons why he was right to bring his child to the press briefing and why everyone else was a bunch of meanies, Gogarty eventually trumped himself by playing the sexism card. "If it were a woman doing what I did, no one would dare say a thing!" he wrote on his website on Thursday. Eh, what?

A woman would probably be berated even more. Women in high-powered professional surroundings spend their time practically pretending they don't have children lest their parental duties give others ammunition to say they can't do their jobs properly. Can you imagine how torn asunder a female politician would be – say Joan Burton or Lucinda Creighton – if they rocked up to a massively important party press conference with a baby under their arm?

Gogarty's biggest problem is that he suffers from a similar disorder that once afflicted Michael McDowell. He cannot walk past a microphone. He can't say "no comment". He can't put down the phone when he's said too much. He seems remarkably deficient in media savviness, which is quite odd for a former journalist. Online, he has exposed himself as endlessly unprofessional. Some politicians are better seen and not heard.

So he says that he shouldn't face any flak because was putting his paternal duties first. Really? Because in my book, any public figure who puts his children in front of cameras isn't going to be a contender for Pop of the Year.

On Liveline, Gogarty did admit that while he would have scored just four out of 10 for being a politician, he would have got 10 out of 10 for his fatherly skills. Guess what, Gogo? We're not paying you to be a dad.

Hold me...

Next Wednesday, on World Aids Day, me and my buddy Will will be taking part in an overnight sleep-out on the streets of Dublin to raise money for Open Heart House, a support centre for those living with HIV and Aids. We need your cash, so donate here: http://tinyurl.com/dublinsleep

Thrill me...

At this time of year, music journalists go through the half-painstaking, half-fun process of making a list of their favourite albums. For 11 months, I've been on team Beach House with their wonderful Teen Dream. But even though they put on a brilliant show in Vicar Street on Monday, they've been usurped by Kanye West's latest, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. Now, for number three...

Kiss me...

How awesome does the new Natalie Portman film The Black Swan look? Ballet, Vincent Cassel, rivalry, and all coloured by beautiful Soviet-inspired film posters. What could possibly go wrong?

Kill me

"We all partied," Brian Lenihan told us, sounding like a new cast member on Fade Street, and continuing his penchant for trying to blame everyone else but Fianna Fáil. But I think this December many will leave caution aside and go more nuts than usual. And why not? If we're all going down, we might as well have fun in the process.

umullally@tribune.ie