Wednesday, September 14, 2005
LATHAM DIARIES EXTRACT: “ROWWRRR! GRRRRR! HSSSSSS!”
Kim Beazley, Kevin Rudd, Gough Whitlam ... in fact, the entire Labor Party gets it in the neck from Mark Latham:
In The Latham Diaries, he accuses his successor, Kim Beazley, of spreading false rumours of sexual harassment about him.
“Six weeks after I brought [Beazley] back on to the front bench in 2004, he was continuing his six-year campaign of smear and innuendo against me,” Latham writes, according to an excerpt published in today’s The Daily Telegraph.
He also says Labor is “irreparably broken”, according to an excerpt in The Australian, and describes leadership aspirant Kevin Rudd as “a terrible piece of work” who is addicted to leaking stories to the media.
But Latham writes that the “cruellest cut of all” came from his mentor, the former prime minister Gough Whitlam. He learned from his closest political friend and Labor frontbencher, Joel Fitzgibbon, that Whitlam “wanted me gone from federal politics” - and to hand over his seat of Werriwa to a former Whitlam researcher, Stephen Chaytor.
We may, by not electing Latham, have just possibly dodged a bullet. Note this:
Last December, when Latham was still Labor leader, he wrote: “I have grown to hate this place and the people in it.”
Hit the link above. The photograph is remarkable.
UPDATE. Latham on Kevin Rudd, in April 2004: “Rudd is a terrible piece of work. Addicted to the media and leaking. A junior minister in government at best … If he grew up in poverty in rural Queensland where did the posh accent come from?”
UPDATE II. ALP member Casey Conway: “It’s typical of Latham. It’s a blame game now. He’s made all the mistakes, but he’s blaming Gough … He’s in love with himself—he’s been like it all through his career, getting back at people.”
UPDATE III. Latham claims John Howard tried to break his wife’s hand with a powerful handshake: “She said to me, ‘That man just tried to break my hand. It really hurt’ … I’m supposed to be the intimidating one in politics, but I have never tried to break a woman’s hand. How does Howard get away with it?”
UPDATE IV. Latham writes to a colleague: “The numerous snakes, freaks, arseholes and sewer rats in the caucus have had their say—off the record, of course. It’s only fair I set the record straight. A lot of people will be unhappy about the truth, but quite frankly I couldn’t give a rat’s arse about them. Good luck in the future with your work and thanks again for your support while I was leader of that thing. Kind regards, Mark Latham.”
UPDATE V. Peter Costello: “I will probably buy a copy. I think it might be a good read.”
UPDATE VI. Kevin Rudd: “Mark Latham has a big problem with the truth.”
UPDATE VII. Paul Keating (according to Latham): “Why would I worry about him and his health?”
UPDATE VIII. Tanya Plibersek: “A lot of the bitterness and division that was there while Mark was leader has been resolved.”
UPDATE IX. NSW Labor senator Steve Hutchins: “I’ve always thought he was a sleaze and he’s proven he is.”
UPDATE X. A Melbourne Age commenter: “So either Mark Latham is a really nice guy and EVERY single other Labour person is totally deranged OR Mark Latham has lost the plot and is very fast declining towards a state of insanity.”
UPDATE XI. Beazley is now contemplating legal action: “In these sort of circumstances, quite frankly when you look at both documents and coverage, you do reserve your legal position.”
UPDATE XII. A News Ltd commenter: “Latham lost one round to his enemies and since then he’s been throwing a girlie tantrum that’s lasted almost a year.”
UPDATE XIII. Latham on Bob Carr: “He doesn’t know the difference between Ronald Reagan and Reg Reagan.” Heh. Carr knew that Latham would be a disaster.
TV UPDATE. The ABC has brought forward its Enough Rope interview with Latham, originally scheduled for Monday night. It’ll now be shown at 8.30 tonight.
UPDATE XIV. Mark Bahnisch shoots the messenger: “Yeah, whatever. Hoorah for the great Australian media. Pathetic.” Well, at least he’s mentioned the Latham explosion; most lefty sites haven’t touched it.