Act founder Sir Roger Douglas, with deputy leader and Consumer Affairs Minister Heather Roy, is understood to have led moves in the party against Mr Hide during the controversy over the international travel costs of his partner.
The Act board was told the caucus had issues over the leadership, and a special caucus meeting was called for November 22.
Mr Key is understood to have learned about the moves against Mr Hide shortly before that - between his return from Apec in Singapore and his trip to Trinidad for the Commonwealth summit.
He told Mrs Roy that if Mr Hide were removed from the leadership, her own ministerial position would be in jeopardy.
Oh Lord. What a loss that would be.
What a joke. Without Rodney there would be no ACT today. Sure he made mistakes this year, big ones, but so did Sir Roger. Looks like they are expending more energy on internal power games than advancing political ideas. Pathetic.
It isn't until you are well and truly out of it that you can see how silly this all looks; dump Rodney?? And replace him with whom, pray tell?
At this rate Rodney is going to end up being the Ron Paul of NZ politics. ACT needs him far more than he needs ACT.
Good on Key.