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HOWARD HAPPY

The former PM remains cheerful:

In an interview with the Herald, Mr Howard appeared surprisingly regret-free, and even buoyant.

Why wouldn’t he be? You know, apart from being interviewed by the Herald. Perhaps Howard is amusing himself these days by reading Phillip Adams:

John Howard, now reduced to the ghostly, ghastly company of Irving Kristol, Dick Cheney, Newt Gingrich, Lewis “Scooter” Libby, John Bolton and Paul Wolfowitz at a posthumous dinner at the American Enterprise Institute ...

Cheney didn’t attend, as was widely reported. Keep going, Phil:

Nothing is more evanescent than political power. When it goes, it really goes. Nicolae and Elena Ceausescus’ horrified realisation that the crowds below the balcony weren’t cheering but jeering; both of them shot against a wall within the hour.

No. Three days later. As Nicolae probably told you, in another of those interviews that never happened.

(Via Dylan Kissane and Hal G.P. Colebatch)

Posted by Tim B. on 03/12/2008 at 09:45 PM
  1. I still can’t get on adam’s blog, even after calling him a mutant pig pufferfish.

    Posted by cohenite on 2008 03 12 at 09:56 PM • permalink

  2. Nothing is more evanescent than political power. When it goes, it really goes.

    How’s the Climate Change Coalition going?
    Managed to rid the blight of the Hunter coal industry from your cattle farm’s doorstep yet, squatter?

    Posted by egg_ on 2008 03 12 at 10:06 PM • permalink

  3. Did they have plastic turkey at the dinner, too?

    Posted by andycanuck on 2008 03 12 at 10:10 PM • permalink

  4. Howard, Kristol, Cheney, Gingrich, Libby, Bolton, and Wolfowitz sounds like a fascinating dinner to me. But to draw unstated parallels between the evanescent power of Nicolae Ceauşescu and Eliot Spitzer is way over the top.

    Posted by RichS on 2008 03 12 at 10:14 PM • permalink

  5. John Howard, now reduced to the ghostly, ghastly company of Irving Kristol, Dick Cheney, Newt Gingrich, Lewis “Scooter” Libby, John Bolton and Paul Wolfowitz at a posthumous dinner at the American Enterprise Institute ...

    Wooooooo! A virtual haunted house of right wing horrors! Why doesn’t Phil break out his Ouija board and conduct an interview?

    Nicolae and Elena Ceausescus’ horrified realisation that the crowds below the balcony weren’t cheering but jeering; both of them shot against a wall within the hour.

    You mean, like, human cannon balls? Wonder who had to clean that up.

    Posted by paco on 2008 03 12 at 10:24 PM • permalink

  6. Still, its wonderful to see that the mentally retarded can hold down a regular job these days.  Gold star for Phillip!

    Posted by bondo on 2008 03 12 at 10:43 PM • permalink

  7. Heh heh, Paco.

    I bet John Howard lifted a nice glass to the rest of the guys and congratulated himself and all of them for finally being able to get out of the bloody rat race.

    Posted by RebeccaH on 2008 03 12 at 10:44 PM • permalink

  8. #1 cohenite - Which reminds me, old top: I believe I read somewhere that you are being sued for slander by the Mutant Pig Pufferfish Association.

    Posted by paco on 2008 03 12 at 10:46 PM • permalink

  9. The PM’s term is ended but the left malcontents linger on.

    Posted by stackja1945 on 2008 03 12 at 10:54 PM • permalink

  10. nothing’s guranteed to make Phil plunge and bound with rage
    as seeing john, his nemesis, gracing the world stage.
    some might say Phil’s now no outlet for his hate
    seeings how the parliment’s entirely his mates
    so he’ll flog the anti howard line
    as Kevin leads us down the mine
    buggering the wealth of our once proud and pros’prous nation
    while digging up more interviews from his imagination

    Posted by anonymous guest on 2008 03 12 at 10:55 PM • permalink

  11. #8. I can’t speak for the original poster, but wouldn’t you find this slanderous?

    Posted by RichS on 2008 03 12 at 10:59 PM • permalink

  12. Why wouldn’t he be?

    Me, I expect Dubya to dance his way out of the White House next January.

    Posted by The_Real_JeffS on 2008 03 12 at 11:00 PM • permalink

  13. Blair: Shhhhhhh, you’re disrupting the narrative.

    Posted by Tommy Shanks on 2008 03 12 at 11:05 PM • permalink

  14. Whatever happened to “Howard’s going to lose the election, and then we can forget about him”? Whatever happened to “He won’t even be a footnote in Australia’s history”?
    It’s been four months already. Methinks Phil and phriends have a bad case of the Gloria Gaynors.

    Posted by SwinishCapitalist on 2008 03 12 at 11:16 PM • permalink

  15. Is Adams implying that John Howard, and the “ghastly” assemblage at the American Enterprise Institute ought to be lined up against a wall and shot like the Ceausescus?

    I’m beginning to suspect that the Left’s bizarre half-century facination with Ché Guevara is not in spite of his bloody excesses, but because of them.

    Posted by Spiny Norman on 2008 03 12 at 11:22 PM • permalink

  16. It’ll get worse for Phil. Howard’s place in history as one of the good guys is assured and like Reagan, his status will build with time, not diminish.

    The sudden slump in business and consumer confidence in Australia may make it happen sooner rather than later. Doesn’t matter who is to blame or that many of the problms stem from abroad, it’s perception. People will look back and say “it was better under Howard than it is now”.

    Posted by Contrail on 2008 03 12 at 11:26 PM • permalink

  17. They should be worried that they’re already looking worse than horror of horrors Howard. Apart from the odd bit of symbolism and a new review a day.
      Gillard keeps the chooks fed.

    Posted by blogstrop on 2008 03 12 at 11:26 PM • permalink

  18. #3
    They ordered stuffed turkey, but Fillup was otherwise engaged ...

    Posted by egg_ on 2008 03 12 at 11:41 PM • permalink

  19. #8 paco; me defence be I is one; we be resilient swine, us porcine fish; swampy adams just didn’t recognise the compliment. Proves me point.

    Posted by cohenite on 2008 03 12 at 11:43 PM • permalink

  20. #16 People will look back and say “it was better under Howard than it is now”.

    You seem to have accidently inserted “will” into your sentence.

    Posted by rob w on 2008 03 13 at 12:02 AM • permalink

  21. Another story from the fertile imagination of Phillip Adams.

    His head’s full of crap which explains the fertility.

    Posted by kae on 2008 03 13 at 12:57 AM • permalink

  22. The Ceaucescus, to the eternal disgrace of the Labor Party, were invited here sometime in the late 80s.
    So there is a chance that Phil interviewed them.
    He likes commie scum, he’s one.

    Posted by Honkie Hammer on 2008 03 13 at 02:05 AM • permalink

  23. Phatty is a “nothing” whilst JWH is a real success story. Onya, JWH - a great statesman and a top PM. Phatty you grub, eat your heart out you jealous, hateful prick.

    Posted by jorjac on 2008 03 13 at 02:16 AM • permalink

  24. A quick bit of mental arithmetic indicates that:
    1. With help from the media, an ALP government can survive 13 years.
    2. With no help from the media, coalition governments in recent times ran for around 7 or 11 years.
    3. Before the media was a fully-fledged lefty player, conservative governments could go 23 years, which now looks way too long, but reflected the times.
    4. The Whitlam government was the odd one out, managing to offend so many that they were repudiated in 1975 after only a few years at the controls - despite media support.

    Posted by blogstrop on 2008 03 13 at 02:21 AM • permalink

  25. #24
    Labor education of the young voters helped too.

    Posted by stackja1945 on 2008 03 13 at 03:02 AM • permalink

  26. #25 Which goes back to the media assistance, as well as the teacher’s union’s support for Labor.

    Posted by Ash_ on 2008 03 13 at 03:27 AM • permalink

  27. The Ceaucescus, to the eternal disgrace of the Labor Party, were invited here sometime in the late 80s.

    Ratbag mining magnate Lang Hancock developed a close friendship with Ceaucescu. Much was made of the strange partnership - the greediest of capitalists and a communist dictator being mutual admirers. The time was 1987 when Brian Burke was the Labor premier of Western Australia. Doesn’t seem so strange after all.

    hawke was PM and I’m sure Ceaucescu was feted by the Silver Sleaze during a visit to Australia to see hancock’s operation.

    Posted by Contrail on 2008 03 13 at 04:43 AM • permalink

  28. It is funny listening to the commentariat complaining about John Howard being in the limelight: They have dedicated such explosive transports of ferocious energy to denouncing - a quiet speech accepting an award; by a private citizen; amongst friends; way overseas.

    It would not have been but a whisper but for the noise the journos made.

    In principle it is like that little poem

    The other day upon the stair
    I met a man who was not there…

    In character it is like a herd of Mr Gumbys stomping around a china shop.

    Posted by Toiling Mass on 2008 03 13 at 04:57 AM • permalink

  29. What’s with Phatty’s ghoulish fascination with assassination?

    Perhaps ASIO needs to investigate him - that is, if it isn’t already?

    #27, Contrail.

    Should’ve known that Brian Burke was involved somehow.  Like Shirley McLaine (or Forrest Gump), he seems to have been involved in every notable event for the past 3,000 years!

    Posted by ann j on 2008 03 13 at 04:59 AM • permalink

  30. 27. I remember a dodgy sounding deal involving swapping rail way cars for some iron ore or something like that.
    Whats the bet bugger all passed hands bar a few bob for “the boys”?

    Posted by thefrollickingmole on 2008 03 13 at 05:08 AM • permalink

  31. #16 People will look back and say “it was better under Howard than it is now”.

    Possibly.  However we in Victoria look back and say “It was better under Kennett that it is now” and yet the Liberals can’t get even close to getting in power despite the shenanigans of State Labor.

    Posted by walterplinge on 2008 03 13 at 06:00 AM • permalink

  32. #31 - does this mean that you can fool enough of the people for quite a while?

    Posted by blogstrop on 2008 03 13 at 06:15 AM • permalink

  33. both of them shot against a wall within the hour

    Like these guys
    Adams aspires to Che-hood: he’d have been a prized lietenant of Castro.
    What is it with the left and “shot against the wall”?

    Posted by Mike_W on 2008 03 13 at 07:08 AM • permalink

  34. Phil’s phull of __it.

    Posted by AlburyShifton on 2008 03 13 at 07:17 AM • permalink

  35. “Nicolae and Elena Ceausescu…shot against a wall”

    Romania is superior to Australia in one way.  In Romania lying, ultra-rich commies are summarily executed.  In Australia they get a lifetime “job” in the state-run media.

    Posted by Dave Surls on 2008 03 13 at 08:21 AM • permalink

  36. #24 & #30 - The Ceausescu’s visited Perth in the late 80’s, ostensibly to discuss a counter-trade deal which was a typical flavour-of-the-month Labor Government fad at the time. 

    The Ceausescu’s were put up at Government House where they scandalised the Governor and his staff by knocking off the guest towels and the ashtrays - in fact anything which wasn’t nailed down.

    An utterly disgraceful episode in the State’s history. 

    Still, Brian Burke would have feted Pol Pot and put him up for a bloody knighthood if he thought there might have been a quid in it for himself.

    Posted by Ubique on 2008 03 13 at 08:45 AM • permalink

  37. #23 Spot on

    Like Oz itself, he punched way above his weight on the world stage & Adams is simply an inconsequential, bitter old fart ...

    Posted by egg_ on 2008 03 13 at 08:54 AM • permalink

  38. John Howard, now reduced to the ghostly, ghastly company of Irving Kristol, Dick Cheney, Newt Gingrich, Lewis “Scooter” Libby, John Bolton and Paul Wolfowitz at a posthumous dinner at the American Enterprise Institute ...

    What Adams doesn’t know is that wasn’t just an ordinary dinner.  Oh no.  That was a planning meeting for the VRWC.  The AEI is just one of paco’s front organizations, and not a very good one at that.  (wronwright is certain he could have put together a much more secretive yet ingenious front company but once again is frustated that they handed off the task to paco).

    But I am pleased to say they handed to my capable hands the responsibility for the dinner.  We had a sundry list of endangered species for dinner.  Keep in mind that this group is very selective in what they will eat and if they so much as burp in distaste over a meat or fish, its the dungeons for me.  Yet I consider the dinner a success!  Yet one more success in my tabulation of cudos. 

    Any day now I would just bet I get tapped for ascension to full member status.  Good bye henchman role.  Hello custom black helicopter. 

    (wronwright flips through the helicopter catalog)

    Posted by wronwright on 2008 03 13 at 09:05 AM • permalink

  39. #38 Wronwright: The ivory-billed woodpecker giblets were admirable, and the whooping crane under glass was melt-in-your-mouth; however, Cheney broke a tooth on the sea turtle soup (I think you’re supposed to take the sea turtle out of the shell).

    Posted by paco on 2008 03 13 at 11:31 AM • permalink

  40. #17 blogstrop: “chook” is apparently another of those “separated by a common language” words.

    Means something totally different in the states.

    Posted by mojo on 2008 03 13 at 05:24 PM • permalink

  41. Maybe, rather than sending Joe Hockey to Macquarie Street, Sir John could take over the reins of the New South Wales Liberal Party.

    Help us John Howard, you’re our only hope!

    Posted by monaro on 2008 03 13 at 11:20 PM • permalink

  42. Somehow, this story in the SMH doesn’t surprise me.  JoHo is just getting on with life after politics, which seems completely in character for him.  He’s not, say, coming out with a Whitlamesque obsession with his legacy (as the folks at Cactus Island put it, “moi was just building moi’s pyramid”).  Even the article notes the difference between JoHo’s typical reasonableness and Keating’s nearly pathological sense of resentment (see this example of the sad old clown’s inability to come to terms with defeat).

    I’m guessing Tim already posted the link to the AEI address, but if it’s any good to anyone, this is it.  It’s gotta be one of the best statements of conservative belief I’ve read.

    I disagreed with Howard over a few things, particularly and especially gun control.  But there’s no doubt in my mind his place in our history is secure (at least, assuming we conservatives ever get a chance to write history as a change from making it).

    Posted by Renegade Lawyer on 2008 03 14 at 03:23 AM • permalink

  43. #3 Andy:

    No, it was a plastic Cheney.

    Posted by Rittenhouse on 2008 03 14 at 07:41 AM • permalink

  44. #39 Paco

    But look on the bright side:

    1.  All we minions waxed fat on the leftovers (they left most of the whole roast Panda stuffed with minced Siberian Tiger as well as the loin of Mammoth), and

    2.  Certain select minions received not only the finest of Lordly disdain, but also the most exquisite of sound thrashings with riding-crops.

    Why, the flogging Senior Minionette Pogria received from the very hand of the Dark Lord himself has already entered minion folklore.

    And I myself received an excellent kick in the slats when a junior minion misplaced a Trilobite meat-extraction fork by 0.75mm!

    That takes real class, that does.

    Show me a lefty leader who even knows what a Trilobite meat-extraction fork even looks like, I say.

    MarkL
    Minionmeister to the VRWC

    Posted by MarkL on 2008 03 15 at 03:16 AM • permalink

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