So Andrew, with the federal election coming up next year, what's the Democrats' updated version of "Keep the bastards honest!" to be?

Andrew.

If the "gang of four" had not ruined your party years ago you may have a chance.

I will be voting for you because you are a decent bloke, but your parties woes are entirely of their own making.

Frankgol

I am not sure what Pru's husbands friendship with Mr Howard has to do with anything. I would imagine Mr Howard has friendship with people from many walks of life. Pru herself has always displayed feminist anti Christian views which are consistent with Democrats policy. When the democrats had 40000 respondents to their recent poll on the separation of church and state the results were not published because it did not fit with their philosophy. They claim the poll was hijacked. If it was hijacked by homosexuals and/or feminazis they would have used the information to justify their bigotted unchristian stand.

I realised all along that Pru is unlikely to change from the liberals to democrats despite her core values as I read them being very much in line with the Democrats.

Andrew, it is stupid to say that the Greens are allied to the ALP. Ask anyone in the NSW ALP.

The Cross City Tunnel corruption, for example, was exposed by the Greens. A slap in the face for the NSW ALP.

The southern NSW and Tasmanian ALP oppose the Greens more than they oppose the Liberal Party, espicially over woodchipping. The Queensland ALP is most animated in their opposition to the Greens Party.

The Democrats ended its "keep the bastards honest" credibility after the Gang of four ratted, lied, cheeted, and betrayed their own voters. You had some very ugly infighting in your ranks. You really are a bore and you really are a disappointment.

We can thank Cheryl Kernot for showing the first signs of a rat party. I mean, the Dems were started by a Liberal, after all. She opportunistically jumped over to the ALP, foolishly thinking that their supporters would trust such a rat. Well that didn't work for long.

Then along came Meg Lees. What a leader. The first industrial relations victory for the Liberals was thanks to Meg Lees and the Democrats. Then there was GST. It wouldn't have gone through without the Democrats. In fact, the Democrats are the best thing that ever happened for the Liberal Party. It was really an Independent wet faction of the Liberal Party all along. And you demonstrated that well on your track record too.

In Victoria, you actually gave preferences to Australia First Party over the Greens. Did the Democrats prefer an ultra right wing party over their rival? Surely not! Or was this just dishonest politics? Bingo!

You ask us to trust you after behaving so disgracefully. You insist that your party is honest and "non partisan". You claim that the legitimacy of the Senate depends on the Democrats. That is downright patronising to the Australian system exposing nothing but your quasi-liberal arrogance. If you respected the Parliament so much, Andrew, then why do you go there drunk harrasing the women?

Good Night, and Good Bye

Runner – in your response to an article about the Democrats you referred to Pru Goward. “One of her recent statement was along the lines that women wearing high heels are in similar bondage as women wearing burkhas. This kind of thinking fits well with Democrat philosophy.”

Later you claimed that “Pru herself has always displayed feminist anti Christian views which are consistent with Democrats policy”. The fact is that Pru Goward and her husband, David Barnett, have no affiliation with the Democrats. They are true-blue Liberals, personally close to the PM - even commissioned to write an authorised biography (John Howard, Prime Minister, Viking, 1997). Barnett had previously been media adviser to PM Fraser (before Fraser was disowned by the Libs). You may be aware that controversial remarks by Barnett about Indigenous mothers are currently before the Human Rights & Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC).

Curiously, Goward is a Commissioner still despite having recently been selected to stand for the safe Liberal seat of Goulburn at the next NSW election. (Having lost to an earlier preselection contest, she was personally backed by the PM.)

Perhaps you don’t know that Goward was appointed in 1997 (despite her inexperience and lack of a relevant track record) as head of the Office of the Status of Women in the Department of PM and Cabinet (a position she held until 1999). In 2001, the PM appointed her as Sex Discrimination Commissioner at HREOC and extended her tenure for a further three years in July 2006.

Goward also spent 19 years with ABC TV and Radio as a current affairs journalist, political reporter and commentator. Interviewed on the ABC by Julia Baird 22 October 2006, she said“…the ABC is a bit like the Liberal Party, it's a broad church. Plenty of people in it didn't care, plenty of other people judged me entirely on my merit, plenty of other people were actually Liberals themselves…” She still felt, however, that she was sacked because of her Liberal views.

I’ll come to your high heels and burka comments in the next post.

I agree with the almost universal analysis of the Democrats demise through their leadership and GST shananigans.

However Andrew Bartlett is the only federal parliamentarian that is doing anything at all about indigenous issues. Even the Greens, who you would expect would embrace the Aboriginal cause, have displayed their own racism, ignorance and lack of connection to Aboriginal Australia. Bob Brown's campaigning on the Burrup Peninsula has given them a single token issue to display but they have not managed to expand this tokenism into realistic campaigns and policies to actually address Aboriginal Australia.

In Qld (where I live) the Greens failed to raise indigenous issues during the recent state election- not even a media release on a token issue. This is in the context of high tension about the Palm Island death in custody, the campaign to return stolen wages, the abolition of ATSIC and Qld representative bodies, the racist Qld grog laws and the recent massive media saturation about Aboriginal violence.

Bartlett has been the only Qld politician to challenge Bjelke-Beattie on indigenous issues.

The only elected Green in Queensland is the Mayor of Palm Island -endorsed by the party as a Green candidate before she won the election, and greens spokespeople constantly claim they have no Green representatives. - terra Nullius in their own party.

Andrew Bartletts recent speech in parliament about the racism of some environmentalists shows that he is light years ahead of the Greens in his understandings of the relationship between ecology and Aboriginal issues. http://www.andrewbartlett.com/hansard.php?id=111
This perspective is reflected in Barletts work in the senate too, not just a cheap shot at greenies - http://www.andrewbartlett.com/blog/?p=1128

Bartlett is a regular visitor to Qld Aboriginal communities unlike all the other Federal politicians including Greens and the strangely silent Peter Garrett.

Bugger the Democrats but Bartlett is worth saving.