Rudd has resigned as Foreign Minister

[Triple V]

It's on for young and old. :rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:

http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/political-news/rudds-resignation-speech-as-foreign-minister-20120222-1tnue.html

[broncobrad]

So is he jumping out all together or does he think he's got the numbers. Pretty brave (or stupid) to be off shore when he announced it, or he's pretty confident. Is there a market on the leadership out yet?

[Greg Hando]

What's the odd's on him pulling the pin altogether and then their having to be an election, wouldn't that give Gillard the shit's ?

[broncobrad]

What's the odd's on him pulling the pin altogether and then their having to be an election, wouldn't that give Gillard the shit's ?

Greg you mean a by-election I think, with the possibility of one less in a minority gov't. That pain in the buttock region of Julias would certainly become a full blown raging heamorroid of the largest order again. Our electorate just went through a by-election a couple of months ago and everyone that you spoke to said the same thing...what a waste of tax-payers money in a pointless exercise when the state gov't already had an overwhelming majority.

Lets hope he is not that selfish to have a dummy spit if he is beaten and resign with the shits. He can sit up the back and stew for a while. Won't hurt him.

[Greg Hando]

Yeah that is what i meant.

[Triple V]

All the pundits on the TV last night were saying that he'd go to the back benches etc etc and snipe away from there.
I just don't think he will.
If he can't get the numbers to win a challenge on Monday, I think he will go with the scorched earth option and bring them all down. Old mates Swan & Crean should have kept their mouths shut. That just threw petrol on the fire. If he can't get the top job then I think Rudd will resign, force a bi-election in his Seat that he knows Labor will lose and lose badly...because he knows that the QLD'ers have well & truly had enough of Labor both at State & Federal level...and that will be that. State & then Federal Elections, land slide to the LNP in both cases. In a short space of time Labor will have been tossed from Office in VIC, NSW, QLD and Federally. Mark Arbib & faceless men of the The Sussex St. Machine of NSW Labor must be proud of their achievements. I would certainly like to buy them each a beer for their efforts. I couldn't have wrecked it better myself. ;)

[Starship Captain]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOUFKZBpFTY

I don't have the fucken patience

[Greg Hando]

I'm thinking the same as you Jamie.

[broncobrad]

I keyed a few choice words about what I thought of Mark Arbib the other after reading Jamies post but thought better of it and deleted it instead. Then I read and watched Starship Captains contribution. Once again PURE GOLD. Just the pep up I need after a crap day earning a quid. I hope your post stays intact SC, I will refer to it everytime I see a crap drive by some of the imposters that masquerade as top horsemen. Kevin says it so succinctly.

[Triple V]

Back in late March of 2011 I thought Kristina Keneally said of her own Party..."The people have not abandoned Labor, Labor has abandoned the people". Brad, I reckon what we're seeing now at a Federal level is the same back room factions/party machine machinations that brought down the VIC, NSW and soon the QLD State Governments. Much to his credit, Kevin Rudd is and has always been 'faction-less'. He is not a creature of nor does he carry the bagge of the NSW Right nor the VIC Left nor the Trade Unions. Less than 1/2 an hour after jumping off the plane from the US he called a press conference and during it, amongst other points, he made very good & I think very telling commentary.

[Now the prime ministership of this country is not something to be dealt with lightly, certainly not something to be dealt with with a midnight coup which is what happened 18 months ago. It's something which affects everybody in this country.
And so what I'm saying directly to the Australian people is if you have a strong view on the future prime ministership of the country then your power as the people is what will count in the days ahead.
Pick up your telephone, speak to your local members of Parliament, tell them what you think. Jump into the media, tell them what you think because this is your country. It doesn't belong to the factions of the Labor Party.]

When it comes down to tin tacks...they won't admit it but that's the real reason why the King Makers like Bitar & Co. hate him. He is not and never has been beholding to them. I don't like Rudd's politics but I admire the fortitutde he has shown to stand against the shit storm the back room boys are trying to rain down upon him at present.

[broncobrad]

Yeah Jamie, he is the geeky schoolkid that roared. Its a shame that when the furore dies down, so will the the real feeling and honesty that we are currently enjoying. Nothing like a bit of frank unadultered truth with no shackles, winner takes all sort of stuff. Bit like next week, I reckon when the pretenders ITMQ and Auckland Reactor shape up against the dourest of champs (No hiding my loyalty to Trigger). Somewhere along the way the Labor Party lost its way, maybe back as far as Keating v Hawke and I think the selfish actions of the factions has damaged the Labor image for workers and followers to be able to stomach maybe for another generation.

[Triple V]

Arbib's gone now. Resigned about 1/2 an hour ago. That's a shame because it would have been better if he stuck around and continued to stuff things up.

[broncobrad]

Like a rat on an old galleon about go through a shit storm, he jumps. Thats the depth of the mans conviction to the Labor Party and the true believers. Gutless through and through. Hope his family can live with him because the ALP will certainly be much improved by his departure. Wow, thats pretty controlled vitriole. Bye scumbag.

[Triple V]

I bet he will go to work for James Packer...you couldn't get enough $$$ on it.

[broncobrad]

Bob Carr resurrected without a vote, Bob McLelland stabbed in the back for supporting Kev Rudd, lies dripping from Julias lips like water. Steve Smith stymied again. What a wicked web we weave.

[Triple V]

Gillard has all the credibility of a Taiwanese Rolex.

I have no great love for that side of politics however as the father of two girls I thought her arrival at The Lodge might at least yield one very significant positive, that being the message sent out to primary, high school and university age girls across the country that yes, they could one day be PM if they so desired.
In that respect she held an oh so precious torch as Australia's 1st female PM...and she must have at least had some idea that was the case...& yet she has squandered it, she has treated that significant responsibility with just as much disdaine as she has both the Australian people and the truth in general.

The dogs were barking Bob Carr for Foreign Minister & have been since the moment Rudd handed in his Woggle but once again, like the Carbon Tax & like means testing the Private Health Insurance rebate & like so many other instances too numerous to mention...instances where the PM had opportunity to show some ticker & some honesty ...she simply looked down the camera lense on the evening news and lied her arse off.
The journo's from The Australian were all over it like Seagulls on hot chips, they knew it all top to bottom before they asked her the question and they gave the PM the opportunity to confirm it but that habit of the PM's of flying fast and loose with the truth was once again insurmountable

The really ridiculous thing about the PM denying it all in this instance is that is getting Bob Carr on her team is notably amongst the few smart things she has done to date...he is an absolutely consumate operator and will make an excellent Foreign Minister (he has dearly wanted that posting for most if not all of of his political career)...BUT when questioned on it sadly Julia Gillard's default position to lie her arse off came once again to the fore, a habit that has apparently become so very deeply implanted in her psyche that nowadays she does so instinctively, in the blink of an eye, in a heart-beat.
Worse still is that she time and time again appears to think nothing of it...as though the 24 hour news cycle performs upon her the equivalent of an over-night 'moral carwash' & she can once again expect to come up clean as a newborn in the morning. Disgraceful.

It's all very sad. Australia deserves better than to be headed up by such a person.

[Triple V]

Here's a nice old whisper.
What price Morris Iemma for Canberra?
The dogs are barking it.
I also heard John Aquilina.

[broncobrad]

So Morris has successfully made a full recovery from what I thought was a fatal knifing by his own NSW Labor Party after they pulled the plug on his planned privatisation/sale of state electricity assets? Indeed that would be a bigger comeback than Lazarus and J. Christ himself!!!

You would think the meningoencephalitis scare he dodged a couple of years ago would have knocked some reality into him. Power for some people is as addictive a drug as ever there was.

If the trots get boring and you want pure theatre (and I don't just mean a cameo of G. Hall with arm outstretched in victory) there is always the on-going soapie played out daily at our expense to satisfy their own selfish egos. Clowns. Don't they know, that is what the greater populous thinks of them?