A rather surprising headline caught my eye last week. 'Germany to complete World War I reparations at midnight on Sunday'. That's today. The Bosch will pay the last instalment of the money it owes for starting WWI, 92 years after it ended. Ninety-two years? That's a long time paying for what was, at the very least, some spectacularly reckless behaviour.

I flicked the page and Brian Cowen popped up in another headline. He, like Germany, is still paying for his reckless behaviour. His latest Garglegate battle is with US comedian Jay Leno, who showed an unflattering snap of him to his audience and called him a "drunken moron". It wasn't very funny and was a bit disrespectful, but, really, it was no big deal. Who cares what Leno thinks?

As it turns out, a lot of Irish people care about what Leno thinks. The craw-thumping was deafening. Our image as teetotallers had been besmirched. America would shun us and the markets would tremble. We're all DOOMED because of that hungover interview.

What a shower of hypocrites we Irish can be – and on so many levels. Take alcohol (and most of us do). One in 10 of us is an alcoholic, according to the Rutland Centre. Booze laps around the edges of our lives: it floods our celebrations. The pub, although in decline, is our social reservoir. Soon the pre-Christmas booze exodus to the North will begin. What did Arthur's Day say? Stand the Irish a pint and they'll celebrate a marketing campaign. Begorrah! However, if someone suggests we drink too much all hell breaks loose. Post-boom Ireland likes to portray itself as self-assured. In reality, it hasn't shaken its fear of being portrayed as Drunken Paddyland.

Maybe the widespread coverage of this story is pay-back time. Has the world been waiting to call us Leprechauns again after our years of being obnoxiously nouveau riche? Possibly. This fear led US commentator/pot-stirrer Michael Graham to write last week: "Cowen's drinking hasn't embarrassed Ireland. The world knows how much you drink…" He's right. Cowen's behaviour has embarrassed no one but himself. The markets aren't quaking over his hangover. They don't work that way.

Then there's the hypocrisy about our other national pastime, 'slagging'. When someone like Leno 'slags' us, the humour evaporates and it becomes criticism. In this case, the people who took offence turned their anger, not on Leno, but on his 'victim', Cowen. They should have just shrugged it off.

Regular readers know that I want Cowen gone. So what I'm about to say may come as a surprise, considering the week we've just had. The over-riding feeling I had watching the Leno clip was… sympathy. How much more personal abuse can the man take?

He's a satirist's dream, but he can't complain about this as satire goes with the job. Leno's gag wasn't satire, however. Satire must have a context, like Cowen's woeful work as Taoiseach. The 'joke' was "look at the moron who's in charge of Drunken Paddyland". If Leno had said "look at the moron who's giving €29bn to a dead bank" it might actually have been funny.

The reaction here was disproportionate, giving the gibe weight it didn't deserve. Garglegate has now strayed from satire to personal abuse. It's crossed the line from 'slagging' to playground bullying. Cowen's not pretty so therefore he must be a "moron". He's not a moron. He's just not the leader we hoped he would be.

I hate seeing people being bullied. I was the victim of it through my primary school years. (I'll write about that some other day.) Cowen isn't thin-skinned, but he's human and the personal attacks must hurt. He made a stupid mistake and that should be the end of it. However, the national despair he helped create is breeding an air of nastiness which is largely based on the way he looks. I can't help but feel sorry for him on a human level.

And here's my problem: I DON'T WANT TO FEEL SORRY FOR HIM.

He's the worst leader this state has ever endured and I don't want sympathy to cloud my judgment on that. I want to remain angry over what he has done to the economy. How an average of 320 jobs has been lost every day since he became Taoiseach. How his HSE is creaking, especially in the west. How his sacked junior ministers got €175,000 in golden handshakes.

I don't care what Cowen looks like or how much he drinks. I don't care about his private life or what a chat show thinks of us. I'm sick of hearing how his Morning Ireland interview is affecting the country. I just want him gone because he's destroying our lives.

The Germans spent 92 years paying for the recklessness of their leaders. Looking at Anglo, I can't help seeing an analogy. That's reason enough to slate Cowen. Pick on any of the cock-ups his government has been responsible for, but stop picking on the man. It's gone way beyond a joke at this stage.

dkenny@tribune.ie