A spoon may stay a spoon but the red caterpillar is usually the blue butterfly.

Peter Garrett is proof that, once you go into politics, you have to toe the party line - particularly in the ALP where individual thought is not allowed to be expressed publicly.

Yes, I often wonder how well Peter Garrett sleeps these days. No doubt he thought he'd have a greater chance of influencing policy through Labor than with the Greens. But he really should have known he'd be hobbled right from the start.

He's since gone on, in my eyes, to destroy every shred of credibility, and I once felt he had it in spades with Midnight Oil and in his general environmental advocacy prior to politics. His position now on nuclear and uranium shows incredible weakness.

The Chaser's song on Peter Garrett brilliantly says it all really. That's certainly how I'll always see him from now on - backflipping and turning on himself!

He is a good example of how we can vest too much hope in celebrity influence. I'd prefer to put my faith in much more staid advocates - people like Bob Brown for example - people who never chase celebrity but who stand out just the same - through their sheer integrity, their consistency and their fearlessness in speaking out against powerful vested interests.

Putting faith in celebrity is a real gamble. Most of them got where they are through focusing single-mindedly on their own advancement, and then when it comes to the crunch self interest will always rule.

The author says:

"When such figureheads fall, it's often their followers who feel most injured. Disillusion breeds contempt. Among former admirers, adoration turns to aggro in the blink of an eye."

Never a truer word spoken Mr Kroenert, as we see Leigh espouse:

"once you go into politics, you have to toe the party line - particularly in the ALP where individual thought is not allowed to be expressed publicly."

Talk about 'the pot calling the kettle black' - of course John dubya never expected such cronyism or blinkered-eye vision from his lot.

Tha man has'nt taken his seat in parliament yet, so let him get his foot in the door and listen to him, then bark!

Leigh you are something, the coalition lot could'nt even cough in parliament. Talk about control! there again you have considered they where lefties!

How'd the MO song go; better to live on your knees than die on your feet?