Beazley solid reliable and gutless? by implication howard is decent, honourable and honest! Howard has fooled the Australian people, by the way I was a liberal voter until core & non-core times. Howard is totally divisive, a complete and utter liar, which makes him absolutely deceitful. As well he looks after his family - stanley, looks after his friends - the last A/Day honours and political friends sent o/seas to plum jobs,and helps liberal party donors - the ethanol king etc. If that is not enough he spends our tax money on marginal gov. seats in the main. He is helped by his friend rupert backing him (perhaps his payment will come with the new media laws) and his obediently pathetic "journalists???" or should that be paid hacks. It seems that very few so-called reporters etc have the guts to investigate this government at all. So would Beazley be that bad as PM, at least he is part way honest and decent perhaps he was gutless on one matter - but?
Regards, numbat

The question is not whether Beazley has the guts to be PM, but whether he has the guts to be Opposition Leader. He has already walked away from the job once, and during his tenure he did not serve it up the Howard Government with sufficient energy or commitment to make a dent. The Howard hegemony is well entrenched not because of Howard's masterful statesmanship (what a joke), but because he is not being held to account for his dishonest rodent-like behaviour by our loyal Opposition. The ALP should move as fast as possible to a younger generation with the passion and fire to rattle Howard's cage, and leave Beazley to march off into history. He had his chance.

Ssssshhh.We like kim where he is.If John Howard can keep the economy and prosperity rolling along,lie to me some more John.I love it!

All politians have ot lie at some stage,since the electorate are either too naieve or disinterested to grasp the realities that confront them.

Now, where is the 'grace' in that RODENT' comment Grace ? :)

Here we go - when a (I suppose) labor supporter cannot accept criticism of their "leader" they deflect to criticising the competition.

Far more benefit can be gleaned from considering the multiple qualities of our elected Prime Minister than will be found scraping around the lining of the barrel to find one for the Labor party, in general, or their leader, in particular.

So without "grace" or favour - let us consider - there are 59 labor members sitting in the house of Reps to choose a leader from. As the recently departed Mark Latham (who fell on his own sword for the good of the nation) would have observed, "a regular conga-line of suckholes to choose from" and yet the best they can do is have a public slanging match and "recycle" the man they rejected 2 cycles ago

Col.. as a conservative (evangelical protestant "bible basher" :)
The ONLY man in the labor party I would EVER vote for would be Kim Beasly or Kevin Rudd. But I fail to understand why such 'nice' guys are in a party like that. Man, when u read of the various labor goings on, in Victoria.. unions, competing former university cliques and incredible ego driven machinations.. and I guess the Libs have their share of that also, and the greens are just plain 'off the landscape' of reality.. the Dems are 'in another world' and don't even move the meter from '0' on the relevance scale... some of the Christian groups are also in some dark time warp. One of them had as a major plank in their platform as though it was the all time issue of issues that "Queen Elizabeth is our sovereign" duh.... That leaves the as yet untested Family First or an Independant, or an informal vote. I'm willing to give Family First a go at the next State election in Vic, having had some interaction with the leader, he seems quite level headed and broader based than previous 'Christian' groups.

I will vote for 'principle' above 'expediency' any day.

There was movement at the Station..for the word has passed around..
that we had forgotten God, and gone on our own way
We joined the wild excesses, and Christ was nowhere found...
so Mark, and Kim, and Julia, all tried to have their day
And all the noted members, from electorates near and far
had gathered at the caucus .. to wring their hands overnight
the true believers love the wrangle, where a chance of glory are
And the unionist snuffs the battle, with delight.