If you live by the sword…
Hypocrisy seems to be the modus operandi of the Howard government.
The Federal Government's attack on Kevin Rudd over the WA corruption scandal backfired yesterday when John Howard promoted to the frontbench a senator with shares in companies linked to disgraced lobbyist Brian Burke.From The Age's Michelle Grattan. Ooh, I can't help post these bits too:
Within hours of the appointment of WA Senator David Johnston as Justice Minister, it emerged that he had shares in two mining companies — Murchison Metals and Croesus Mining — which have employed Mr Burke as a lobbyist.Hmm. Justice Minister. The rest of her report has one revelation after another. I wonder if Howard's regretting going after Rudd over the WA-Burke connection.
…Senator Johnston has had other links with people named in the WA corruption hearings.
posted by Mark Lawrence @ 10:19 am
2 comments
2 Comments:
Mark
The uncanny impression I have formed is that there is a very strong element of panic on the part of the incumbent government about its electoral prospects. The effort seems to involve a swift plunge into the sea of public opinion to alter the climate from favour to fear concerning the ALP and of Rudd.
It appears that the various ministers have their personal staff feverishly backtracking via google news archives all and sundry accounts of Rudd's career from his days with Wayne Goss up to the present.
If the Coalition was assured of its electoral position then one would expect a very calm yet calculated discourse about Rudd and the ALP. Instead of taking the time to do their background research in a thorough manner, they are engaged in a combative approach that seems to change as each day unfolds. If they had done their homework on Rudd and Burke (for example) then they would have also excavated into Liberal Party people and their possible links to Burke. The fact that they produced a heated diatribe on Rudd, and then within 48 hours had to divest themselves of Ian Campbell attests to the hasty measures taken.
It is as if "any port in a storm will do" as the justification for their criticisms of Rudd. If they were careful and calculating then if they were very sure of their material about Rudd and Burke, this would have been the sort of thing to "save up for a rainy day" (ideally just before the election is formally announced). The past 6 days shows a panicking PM who is fast losing his grip on the rudder and due to his remote and aloof outlook relative to public opinion on many issues he is steering the government in the direction of its own electoral defeat.
I hope that this form of panic ensues on their part so that we do indeed witness their removal from office this year.
After 11 years of fooling some of the people some of the time, and other variants, they have reverted to type. Slime, smear and ad hominem attacks - the standard operating procedure of the born to rule, who live their lives in fear that their lack of...well, anything good and decent...will be exposed.
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