Will Robinson Sex Scandal Break Northern Ireland Peace?

Just like Bill Clinton's Monica Lewinsky/Paula Jones problem distracted the government from preventing the rise of al Qaeda.

in reference to:

"The scandal has riveted Northern Ireland like few things before. First, Peter Robinson, leader of the province's Protestant-Catholic coalition government, admitted that his 60-year-old wife Iris had embarked on an affair with a teenager two years ago. Then came the allegations that she had obtained $80,000 from two property developers to help her lover set up a cafÉ and that Peter Robinson, upon learning of the deal, failed to report it. Now that the Evangelical base of Robinson's Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) has had time to digest the lurid headlines, the political fallout begins. On Monday, Peter Robinson announced that he would step aside as First Minister for six weeks, saying he needed "time to deal with family matters" and vowing to clear his name. Iris Robinson, a prominent politician in her own right, gave up her seats in the British Parliament and Northern Ireland Assembly and checked into a hospital for acute psychiatric treatment. Arlene Foster, 39, was selected to replace Peter Robinson at the helm of the DUP - she becomes the first woman since former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher to lead a government in the U.K. (See pictures of new hope for Belfast.) But much more is at stake over the next six weeks than one man's political career. The scandal broke at a critical time for the province's shaky power-sharing agreement. For months, the two biggest parties in government, the DUP and the Catholic-backed Sinn Fein, have been at loggerheads over the devolution of policing and justice powers from London to the Northern Ireland Assembly, which was reconvened two years ago following its suspension in 2002. Sinn Fein wants control over the province's police force to be transferred to Belfast to end what it perceives to be a longtime pro-Protestant bias. But many Protestants, including Peter Robinson, are reluctant to change the status quo. Even before Iris Robinson's affair came to light, Sinn Fein had signaled that it could walk away from the power-sharing deal - painfully negotiated throughout the 1990s - if the DUP fails to compromise. Now, the Robinsons' personal crisis threatens to turn an impasse into a political vacuum - with potentially deadly results."
- Will Robinson Sex Scandal Break Northern Ireland Peace? - Yahoo! News (view on Google Sidewiki)