Kevin Rudd

In politics most politicians operate purely out of self interest. It is a hard and fast rule.

In Australia is is highly unlikely that Rudd will win through but you never know when politicians start thinking about themselves:

Rudd’s only, very slim, hope is to stay schtum and see. If he can continue to be accused of undermining the government after losing decisively in today’s ballot, his remaining support is likely to slip away. (Many senior Labor figures believe he has been so publicly discredited, and the antipathy towards him is so intense, a desperate caucus facing defeat would still not turn to him, but instead look to an as yet unidentified third person).

In any event, both collectively and for each camp, self-interest now dictates a deep breath, a truce and a period of stabilisation, at least for a while.

And as the former NSW premier Jack Lang advised a youthful Paul Keating, in politics you should always back the horse named self-interest.

You never can tell with that horse…self interest wins an awful lot.

The shit fight in the ALP is so awesome in its raw politics:

”CONTEMPT. Demeaning. Ludicrous. Psychopath. Chaotic. Paralysis. Dysfunctional. Impossible.”

These are the buzzwords of venom and vituperation that spewed forth from Labor ranks over the last week, directed at Kevin Rudd and his brand of leadership, spoken by a cabal of what was once his closest cabinet ministers.

Research compiled exclusively for the Herald by Media Monitors found Mr Rudd’s colleagues had been more negative in their commentary about the former leader than the collective disparagement of talkback callers towards either Mr Rudd or Julia Gillard at any time since the 2007 election.

What a shame that David Cunliffe or his supporters didn’t have the nads to make comments like this:

“He’s a knobhead sometimes but I have always gotten on with him,” says one MP loyal to Kevin Rudd. “He has a weird, egocentric way about him and he’s a dick in a bad mood but I tell him to get f—ed. [But] you can talk to him. You can have a joke.”

True free speech exists in the ALP, not so here in New Zealand.

The battle in Australia for the leadership of the Labor party and ultimately for Prime Minister is throwing up some awesome quotes:

“I think it’s time people accepted responsibility for their own actions,” he said.

“This thing is bigger than all of us. If I get mowed down by a bus tomorrow … the party is much bigger than me. It’s time for us to unite rather than divide. I say to my supporters, unite behind the government…But it having come to this, it should be resolved.”

Mr Rudd said reports that he called the Prime Minister a ”childless, atheist, former Communist” at a hotel in Adelaide were wrong.

“I don’t have any recollection of having said anything of the sort,” he said.

I believe Rudd…that quote is clearly wrong, there are no expletives in it. I’m not sure it is a good idea though to give suggestions for the resolution of this issue to the faceless men in the smoke-filled rooms. I’m sure the call has now gone out to the Bus Driver’s Union for volunteers for the “Rudd Solution”.

Yes I must say that I am enjoying the ALP meltdown:

The ALP leadership battle is just freaking awesome. Several polls released have numbers that show only Rudd can beat Abbott, but the blodletting is now being described as animalistic:

The bloodletting inside the Labor Party is nothing short of animalistic, write Peter Hartcher and Phillip Coorey.

Until now, American presidential candidates have set the standard for bare-knuckle attacks on other members of their own party.

In a striking statistic, Republicans spent 5 per cent of all their ad budgets attacking each other in the election four years ago; so far this time, it’s running at 51 per cent, according to The Washington Post.

But the American standard for negativity appears to have been overtaken by an abrupt new Australian outburst. This week, many of the parliamentarians of the federal ALP have cast aside any semblance of unity and torn at each other in unrestrained frenzy.

It became ”animalistic”, said the federal Labor MP from Queensland Graham Perrett. Two of the most seasoned factional warriors from both sides of Labor, Graham Richardson from the NSW Right faction and Doug Cameron from the NSW Left, have declared it to be the most extreme they have seen.

And the percentage of negative statements this week? An analysis for the Herald by Sentia Media, formerly Media Monitors, puts it at 58 per cent.

”The comments have been more internally damaging to Labor than ever before,” is the assessment of a non-partisan professional observer, Sentia’s Patrick Baume. Australian Labor makes the US Republicans look almost charitable to each other by comparison.

I’m enjoying immensely the battle in Australia over the leadership of the Australian Labor Party. The current infighting is giving up plenty of ammunition for the Liberals:

At least when the US and Russia were locked in a situation of mutually assured destruction during the Cold War they each had the good sense not to press the button.

Not so the Australian Labor Party.

As the Rudd camp kept saying yesterday, down at Liberal HQ enough material has been recorded in the past 24 hours to make lethal attack ads for every day of the next election campaign.

The best ammunition for the Liberals has been provided by Gillard supporters against Kevin Rudd. Minister after minister fronted the cameras yesterday in a clear attempt to tear apart Rudd’s record and reputation so comprehensively that – whatever the merits of their arguments – the caucus has to conclude he is unelectable.

This is a strategy to smash Rudd on Monday and bury the idea of a second ballot at the same time.

If Rudd’s ”people power” campaign unexpectedly prevailed, the only problem for the Liberals’ federal director, Brian Loughnane, would be choosing which clips to use.

Would he start with Wayne Swan calling Rudd ”dysfunctional”, ”deeply flawed” and ”erratic”, or go for Julia Gillard openly accusing the leader she served of ”sabotaging” the 2010 election campaign, lacking the ”discipline” to stay focused in the tough times, and of leading a government ”paralysed” by Rudd’s ”difficult and chaotic work patterns”? Truly an embarrassment of riches.

But if Gillard wins, as seems most likely, Loughnane can still roll out Rudd explaining that the Labor Party organisation needed reform so it was ”no longer governed by the faceless men”.

You can imagine the scary red and black images and the deep voice-over: ”Julia Gillard isn’t the real prime minister – just ask Kevin Rudd”.

The Aussie really know how to practice low bastardry in politics:

The internal war has descended into chaos, with threats now being made against MPs from powerbrokers loyal to Ms Gillard.

Several confirmed they had been threatened with losing their preselection at the next election if they did not back Ms Gillard in the ballot.

Manufacturing Minister Kim Carr, who publicly said he would vote for Mr Rudd, said he would not be “intimidated”.

“There’s been all sorts of threats made. There are all sorts of suggestions as to what will happen to people who take a different view,” Mr Carr said.

Stuart Nash should be over in Australia watching and learning.

Kevin Rudd didn’t talk to the Greens. That was when he had a majority. Now things are shaky and ignoring the Greens was a stupid strategy when they could come out and declare for your opponent, saying they will force an election if you become leader.

Mr Brown said Mr Rudd’s office had contacted him overnight but despite saying he was available to speak with Mr Rudd, he had not yet heard directly from him.

He said the Greens could work with either Ms Gillard or Mr Rudd but noted that under Mr Rudd’s prime ministership he had “not been able to get in a conversation with Kevin”.

He went on to say that he had shared a good working relationship with Mr Rudd during his term as foreign minister before praising the policy outcomes he said the Greens had been able to achieve with Julia Gillard as Prime Minister.

This comment by Ronnie Johns Chopper best sums up my feelings on Kevin Rudd’s bottled coup attempt:

By all accounts Kevin Rudd has bottled his coup attempt and appear to not have the numbers. Then again neither did Don Brash…twice.