Sharp
Martin at Northcote Knob posted his desire that everyone, and in particular pro-choice people, shut up about Tony Abbott's adopted son. This injunction to silence pissed me off a little - let's face it, bloggers don't blog to be told what not to talk about.
And anytime the answer is "Let's do what Tony Abbott suggests" I think we need to take a good long hard look at the question.
However I couldn't work up the energy to scare up a proper answer, particularly given the feralness of a certain ill two year old of my immediate acquaintance over the last few days. So it was with some relief I read the first item in the Crikey subscriber email tonight, where Christian Kerr just said it goddam all without me having to go all feral about it (let alone write it):
1. Hawkie, the Monk and great moments in political spin
Political correspondent Christian Kerr writes:
"The Abbott and son reunion is the most blatant personal problem deck-clearing effort since Bob Hawke got Blanche D'Alpuget to get his drinking and womanising problems out in the open some 23 years ago in her horizontally observed biography of the great man," a switched-on subscriber writes.
To which we reply "Blud oath, Narelle!"
It's essential that Prime Ministerial aspirants get personal baggage out in the open - with as much of their own spin on it as possible - before they make their run for the top job.
The logic's simple. Do so and you can't have any unwelcome revelations sprung on you when the vital hour comes - or if you have been economical with the actualite and a few more details emerge, you can simply brush them off as old news unworthy of air time.
We've said it before. Abbott used the Michael Duffy book and a senior, senior Gallery journo who got played for a patsy to keep serious and well-researched allegations of the front pages last year. Watch him like a hawk.
He's being helped all the way along by a sooky meeja. Even Lateline last night came across more like New Idea. Hardened cynics in the fourth estate have come over all clucky.
One can but laugh. The meeja at the moment are an absolute joy to behold. With a story like this, all the politically correct posturing that normally seeps from them day after day is replaced with sentimental sh*te.
Another subscriber had a good comment: "One of the things I'm enjoying at the moment is the constant repetition of the statement that Tony Abbott put 'his' son up for adoption. Yeah, right. That's a novel concept."
Crikey readers, did we say you're a clever crew?
I am, of course, a Crikey reader, and therefore it seems clever. And observant and fucking cynical. Once I asked an ex politician I knew how to succeed in politics without being a complete cheating cunt. He sucked on his fag, sipped his drink and said "Rat cunning. Absolute. Rat. Cunning. No other way."
Always assume that politicians are doing what they do on purpose. Because they are. If they're not, they're not up to the job.
(And no, this is not just an excuse to trackback the king of trackback!)
AN UPDATE - pathetic ones, join me at Currency Lad's, and get some sense spanked into you. I just wish I'd read the other comments proper before I made mine. Nic - I have no idea what could spark such rumours about Bob Carr, and I certainly do not want to think about it further.
And anytime the answer is "Let's do what Tony Abbott suggests" I think we need to take a good long hard look at the question.
However I couldn't work up the energy to scare up a proper answer, particularly given the feralness of a certain ill two year old of my immediate acquaintance over the last few days. So it was with some relief I read the first item in the Crikey subscriber email tonight, where Christian Kerr just said it goddam all without me having to go all feral about it (let alone write it):
1. Hawkie, the Monk and great moments in political spin
Political correspondent Christian Kerr writes:
"The Abbott and son reunion is the most blatant personal problem deck-clearing effort since Bob Hawke got Blanche D'Alpuget to get his drinking and womanising problems out in the open some 23 years ago in her horizontally observed biography of the great man," a switched-on subscriber writes.
To which we reply "Blud oath, Narelle!"
It's essential that Prime Ministerial aspirants get personal baggage out in the open - with as much of their own spin on it as possible - before they make their run for the top job.
The logic's simple. Do so and you can't have any unwelcome revelations sprung on you when the vital hour comes - or if you have been economical with the actualite and a few more details emerge, you can simply brush them off as old news unworthy of air time.
We've said it before. Abbott used the Michael Duffy book and a senior, senior Gallery journo who got played for a patsy to keep serious and well-researched allegations of the front pages last year. Watch him like a hawk.
He's being helped all the way along by a sooky meeja. Even Lateline last night came across more like New Idea. Hardened cynics in the fourth estate have come over all clucky.
One can but laugh. The meeja at the moment are an absolute joy to behold. With a story like this, all the politically correct posturing that normally seeps from them day after day is replaced with sentimental sh*te.
Another subscriber had a good comment: "One of the things I'm enjoying at the moment is the constant repetition of the statement that Tony Abbott put 'his' son up for adoption. Yeah, right. That's a novel concept."
Crikey readers, did we say you're a clever crew?
I am, of course, a Crikey reader, and therefore it seems clever. And observant and fucking cynical. Once I asked an ex politician I knew how to succeed in politics without being a complete cheating cunt. He sucked on his fag, sipped his drink and said "Rat cunning. Absolute. Rat. Cunning. No other way."
Always assume that politicians are doing what they do on purpose. Because they are. If they're not, they're not up to the job.
(And no, this is not just an excuse to trackback the king of trackback!)
AN UPDATE - pathetic ones, join me at Currency Lad's, and get some sense spanked into you. I just wish I'd read the other comments proper before I made mine. Nic - I have no idea what could spark such rumours about Bob Carr, and I certainly do not want to think about it further.
posted by Zoe at 8:08 pm
<< Home