John,
Would it not be possible to assemble these likely and capable candidates for the GS job, get them to draft up manifestoes and have a proper open and democratic election instead of having to go through this slightly unseemly "stalking horse" route? (Although I accept that it may have been the only move to "wake up" those, like me, who had no idea of the scale of the problem)
That way we we could square up CD with the competition and elect the GS by direct comparison instead of dumping CD first and then seeing what happened next.