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Last updated on August 5th, 2017 at 05:20 pm
The SMH’s Alan Ramsey launches into our national helper monkey:
Kevin Rudd is what I call a PPP – a prissy, precious p—ck. One with a glass jaw, a quick temper and, when he loses it, a foul tongue.
And don’t imagine I’m the only one who thinks so. One day the electorate will learn about Rudd’s very human, if dark, side. For the moment it knows only his good bits.
Hmmm … glass jaw, quick temper, foul tongue … Rudd sounds much like Mark Latham, of whom Ramsey was quite fond. He’s right, though, about not being the only one who thinks little of Kevni; Canberra’s press pack is presently undergoing a re-evaluation of the ALP leader, who does seem to have a touch of Chris Sheil about him.
- Does anyone else get the feeling that those on the Left are still feeling slightly betrayed by Latham, and because of Rudd’s recent behaviour are not quite as willing to back Rudd as they would normally be?Posted by Ash_ on 2007 04 28 at 12:12 PM • permalink
- He’s got the essence of the debate. Labor trying for style over substance, like their (winning) State colleagues. Rudd, a clearly limited man, not up to it. The public having had enough of Howard.Posted by boxofmatches on 2007 04 28 at 12:21 PM • permalink
- Has anyone ever seen KRudd and John Edwards in the same place?Posted by richard mcenroe on 2007 04 28 at 12:43 PM • permalink
- The image of Kevin Rudd as the messianic midget being heralded onto centre stage to the strains of the meteorological monotone ‘A Change in the Weather’ set the scene for the farce that is the Labor National Conference.
Not only has the party rolled over on fundamental isms like the uranium policy, but former hard-nosed union bosses have conceded fundamentals like the right to strike, as well as draining the remainder of their fighting fund to bankroll the anti-IR advertising campaign, all in a last ditch effort to retain any relevance at all in the 21st century.
All of this based on Rudds numbers in the notoriously unreliable opinion polls.
Now that the cracks are showing in Rudd’s plastic veneer, and the Canberra press hounds have turned on him, there must be some at the conference who are having nightmares tonight about Latham Mark II. Those that can sleep at all, that is.
- Worse. have you ever seen Rudd or Edwards with Stephane Dion?
Cheers
Posted by J.M. Heinrichs on 2007 04 28 at 02:36 PM • permalink
- Cricket, feh! NASCAR is on, and none’a that Car of Tomorrow crap, either.
When you can cross the finish line upside down and on fire and have it count for points in cricket, call me.
Posted by richard mcenroe on 2007 04 28 at 03:50 PM • permalink
- I know Ramsey is a tired old Lefty spear-carrier but when he doesn’t like you, he sure doesn’t like you. He ain’t no hypocrite.
Although Ramsaey hates Howard,(mendacious little toad), Rudd can still expect rough handling from Ramsay.Not like Phillip Adams. Adams rubbished Rudd relentlessly, as recently as six months ago. Now, to read Adams, you’d think they were best friends. Sickening and typical hypocrisy from Adams.
- Speaking of the Herald, it’s Sunday sibling today wquotes the boss of the Electrical Trade Union:
Mr Mighell said unions would not always agree with the Labor Party – and he cited Labor leader Kevin Rudd’s assessment of Mr Howard as a clever politician as an example.
“I describe [Mr Howard] as an anti-union bastard of the last generation and a skidmark on the bedsheet of Australian politics,” he said
—————————-
Keep that sort of talk up cretins and Howard will turn the polls around in a week.
- #11
Second that.Methinks the Left are quickly getting disenchanted with the Rudd dynasty, in that his new clothes are wearing too thin too quickly: the next step of awareness from the meeja is Joe Public.
AFAIK Latho helped develop policy way back and had more substance.
The Krudder has no leadership qualities (PPP) and they’re seeing that: Ramsay’s prolly trying to do his Left mates a favour in announcing this.Beasley lost the leadership, the Krudder couldn’t win it in his own right.
- It doesn’t matter whether you are a prime minister, president, premier or mayor, your first responsibility is to the people you represent. It is your job to fight for what you believe is the best outcome for your country, state or city.
A prime minister must believe in and be proud of his country. Our most successful PMs have been proud of being Australian – Menzies, Hawke and Howard. Less fondly remembered are the PMs who sneered their fellow Australians such as Whitlam, Fraser and Keating. But these three believed they wcould create a nation in their image, a grand vision.
Don’t get either vibe from Rudd. He is not proud of Australia as it is now nor does he want to take the country somewhere else. It is entirely about Rudd. No visions save imagining Rudd in the Lodge entertaining famous people. Running the country can be left to the unions or Gillard and Garrett. he doesn’t care what happens provided he has the best job.
Think that is why Ramsay doesn’t like him. Latham, for all his insanity, was a class warrior and an old class warrior such as Ramsay could love that. Rudd is exactly as Ramsay described him, which is why Phillip Adams loves him. Kindred spirits.
- “Fresh Thinking” to Rudd means
1. A boring history lesson parading ‘The Best Of Labor’ hits from a hundred years ago.2. Re-regulating small business so it will increase unemployment for sure.
3. Sheer hypocrisy ‘modernizing’ their uranium mine limit idiocy [a quite narrow ‘victory’ too] while attacking even the idea of nuclear power in Australia in the future.
One step into the 21stC, and another two back out…
Nonsense about ‘Queensland green, or radio active.’
If the Libs can’t counter this by pointing out that even Switzerland has nuclear power, they don’t deserve to win.4. Lame personal attacks on someone called John Howard, reminiscent of someone called Paul Keating.
Despite all this, the Press Gallery will soon love Fresh Rudd like they loved Bovver Boy Latham, with the same result, I hope – hubris.
- “We’re Labor the Fresh Thinking people with lots of ideas for you..” do be do (Woolworths)
Labor take notes: “de Bono has devised a number of techniques to facilitate lateral thinking and creativity. One of these is termed ‘provocation’, and here you aim to stimulate fresh thinking by throwing in a crazy idea, i.e. the provocation, such as ‘bicycles have no handlebars’. You then explore the implications of your provocation. Random words taken from a dictionary can also be used as provocations.“Edward de Bono – Key Elements
- “That is very, very scary.” Bob Brown says if we export uranium we might end up being bombed with nuclear warheads by Russia, China and India!
In other scary news:
Ghostly figure haunts Labor MPs:
THE “ghost” of former Labor leader Mark Latham spooked some ALP MPs as they arrived for the final sessions of the party’s national conference today.
Julian Morrow, of ABC’s The Chaser, donned a white sheet with Mr Latham’s face sketched on the front to warn Labor politicians they faced a scary election campaign this year.
“Are you happy to see me? Remember the last election,” the ghost whispered to human services spokeswoman Tanya Plibersek as her two young children cowered behind her.
- I never thought Labor could find a slimier, sleazier, more sickening liar than Hawke – but they have in Dudd.Posted by AlphaMikeFoxtrot on 2007 04 28 at 09:22 PM • permalink
- Ramsey’s right that people only see the good bits – the muck that is being thrown isn’t really sticking and most voters seem to like him – he’s made his way from being a poor country boy right up to the national capital. Smart, successful, and he gives the impression that he’d fit the top job.
Frankly, I think the line that is going to be most effective (for the time being) is one of Howard’s: “If I go under a bus the Liberal Party has got Peter Costello…Who have the Labor Party got if Kevin Rudd goes under a bus? Julia Gillard and Wayne Swan.”
Better to save the attacks on Rudd until they will stick.
…who does seem to have a touch of Chris Sheil about him.
Must be the Cretan touch!
Posted by The_Real_JeffS on 2007 04 28 at 10:03 PM • permalink
One day the electorate will learn about Rudd’s very human, if dark, side.
I wonder how the electorate might learn of this? Sounds like a job for – a journalist!
Posted by Margos Maid on 2007 04 28 at 10:15 PM • permalink
- One day the electorate will learn about Rudd’s very human, if dark, side.
I wonder how the electorate might learn of this? Sounds like a job for – a journalist!
Posted by Margos Maid
—————-
You’d be forgiven for thinking that.
Posted by boxofmatches on 2007 04 28 at 10:30 PM • permalink
- #17 – Nonsense about ‘Queensland green, or radio active.’ If the Libs can’t counter this by pointing out that even Switzerland has nuclear power, they don’t deserve to win.
They have – but don’t expect it to get a lot of press. From John Howard’s address to the Victorian Division of the Liberal Partry, 28th April:
…We resolved this more than 25 years ago. Margaret Guilfoyle down there and I were part of a Government that established something called the Ranger Inquiry, and it was presided over Mr Justice Fox. And what did he find? He found that we ought to export uranium from….mine and export uranium in Australia from anywhere, provided it was done under proper safeguards and he laid down what the safeguards should be, and that’s how the law and the operation has been in this country for the last 25 years, except, of course, that state Labor governments have never cooperated in fully implementing that policy. And what the Labor Party today will go through, and they’ll go through all the charade, in the end, there’ll be a triumphant victory for the leader of the Labor Party in getting them to embrace a policy that we embraced between 25 and 30 years ago. And then they will have the nerve to go out say this is a fresh idea.
…we must acknowledge at least the contribution that in time nuclear power can make to that. And I’m not talking here about something that’s revolutionary and untried. 15% of the world’s electricity is already generated by nuclear power. France generates 80% of her electricity by nuclear power. California, 27% of her electricity is generated by nuclear power. And although it is some years into the future, it’s not economic now, of course it’s not, because it’s still very economic to continue with current coal use, but if we’re serious we can’t do that indefinitely… And that is why if we’re fair dinkum about this climate change debate, we have to open our minds to the use of nuclear power. Yet the Labor Party today will solemnly go through this old fashioned, meaningless ritual of repealing their three mine policy, something that we dealt with more than a generation ago, and say they are a party of fresh ideas, yet they will set their faces forever against embracing nuclear power and pretend, when they know in their hearts, it’s an invalid proposition that you can somehow run power stations into the future….in the future on fossil fuel or solar power.
Posted by walterplinge on 2007 04 28 at 10:54 PM • permalink
- The song is a hark back to the Whitlam “It’s time” campaign. They want to re-animate the corpse of 70’s radicalism.
But that wave of change, for better or worse, was actually part of major tectonic shifts in society, spilling over from the 60’s. Whitlam harnessed and rode it into power. Of course, he wasn’t capable of doig anything with it once he actually got to power, but that’s another story. Credit to him for riding the wave to glory.
Those days are gone. Society is no longer in upheaval from the changes of the 60’s and 70’s. The battles are mostly either won or lost.
It’s not time any more.Posted by daddy dave on 2007 04 28 at 10:56 PM • permalink
- #23 Illustrating the improbability of that, Margos, when internal disagreement occurs in the government’s ranks it’s invariably labelled ‘crisis’, ‘division’, a ‘nightmare for the Prime Minister’, ‘failure’ etc. But when Laborites go at it over yesterday’s uranium decision, the ABC’s headline reads ALP still digesting uranium decision. Howard and his colleagues are ‘wracked by division’, whereas the ALP digests things. Uranium in this case.
- Anybody here not on kevni’s struggle street?
- It has become standard operational bullshit now to say we must do something drastic about climate change, without spelling out the drastic damage to our society. Not to mention the futility of tinkering with our 1.6% while the rest of the world does a Nero.
It is also s.o.b. to harp on about alternative energy, renewable energy, etc, without getting to grips with the sheer amount of it we need, whether that can be delivered at all, and the costs of establishing these alternatives.
More s.o.b. attends every mention of nuclear waste disposal. It is not a “problem”, it is not “dangerous”, it is a bogey that seems to still have legs – goodness knows why. It is only a political problem (like Work Choices), not a practical one.
The same for “proliferation”. Reality check, guys. It is happening now (Pakistan, Russia, China, Iran, possibly NorK), but the left have no stomach for the methods we would have to use to stop it. Someone might get hurt.
So, lets fall back on the old “nimby” tactic.
You’ll put one of those power stations in my electorate over the dead bodies of the entire Teacher’s Federation!
- #29 Only if Leunig is checking his fan mail.Posted by Margos Maid on 2007 04 29 at 01:02 AM • permalink
- lotocoti
If he promises get me off his 250,000 struggle street without doing a Mugabe on the dollar I might vote for him?Posted by thefrollickingmole on 2007 04 29 at 01:08 AM • permalink
- I would be interested to know if Rudd himself is getting more than that – though I guess his wife would take him out of the bracket. And then there are the union kickbacks. Aaargh forget it.Posted by Margos Maid on 2007 04 29 at 01:12 AM • permalink
- #30 Father of the Gaia notion, James Lovelock, strongly favours nuclear power generation. The government should be turning this notion of the Prime Minister as “old fashioned” and “out of touch” against Labor. It seems, after all, that Rudd is the one still living in the black and white world of schoolchildren diving under their desks. Actually, “duck and cover” would be a good description of Labor’s avoidance of reality on uranium, domestic nukes and in its 60-by-2050 anti-carbon “policy” generally.
- This morning on The Insiders, Barrie Cassidy asked KRudd if he was a member of a union. A simpler, more easily answered question would be hard to find (Are you alive?). Rudd acted as if he’d been hit by a brick. He was lost for words. After what seemed an eternity he decided that he was. Cassidy then asked him which union he was a member of. This innocuous question elicited the same look of panic, followed by a convoluted, stammering, strangled reply that eventually revealed that he was a member of the Commonwealth Public Sector Union. I presume he meant the Community and Public Sector Union. He then gave gushing unnecessary background; he became a member when he was a young diplomat, blah, blah.
Rudd’s performance was extremely suss. I wonder whether he is in fact a finacial member of any union as required by Labor Party rules. Certainly his reaction was much more than the mild embarrasment that one would expect given his spin that he is not owned by the unions.
Did anyone else (C.L.?) note this?
- Yes I noted it. What I also notice, is every time Rudd speaks, he: i) tries to bullshit the voting public; ii) makes policy on the run (as of this morning membership of a union, apparently, is no longer required to be an ALP parliamentarian).
This treating the public as fools, it’s a legacy of too many years talking to ALP branch members, I guess.
- Slightly OT: I read in the paper today that a union official today spewed forth the comment that with the rise of Rudd, Howard will become a “skid mark on the bedsheet of history”.
Personally, I prefer toilet paper to bed linen. Hope I never get invited to sleep over at his place… (shudder)
Posted by Abu Chowdah on 2007 04 29 at 04:20 AM • permalink
- #38 Yes, in the morning he’s in trouble over union membership – so, that afternoon…
Union membership “a mere technicality, which no one really takes seriously”.
- I think the Libs fucked up when they allowed Rudd to attack them for 6 months on AWB. He said foul disgusting things and the Libs never took offence. Just argued back. They should have not allowed this toxic dwarf the liberty to abuse them for 6 months straight and increase his profile.Posted by boxofmatches on 2007 04 29 at 05:00 AM • permalink
- Ooh, sarcasm:
FEDERAL Labor leader Kevin Rudd has launched a direct personal attack on John Howard’s claim that only he has the experience needed to lead the country…
Mr Rudd said it took a lot of experience to go into Iraq to destroy weapons of mass destruction that did not exist.
____________________________
“There is no debate or dispute as to whether Saddam Hussein possesses weapons of mass destruction. He does.”
– Kevin Rudd, before the war.
- Do you think it will be in Little Kev’s second or third term that he finally admits nuclear power is the only existing technology that can cut CO2 emissions?
If they think the political cost of constructing a reactor in someone’s backyard is too high, wait till they try and commandeer gazillions of hectares to plant solar panels and whirligigs.
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