>>But to blame him for the current debâcle is simply not plausible.<<

There are two sides to every argument. One could well blame Costello for acting like the perennial bridesmaid and not stepping up to the plate, going after the job and taking the political heat and responsibility that comes with it. Howard probably thought that, seeing as though he did a lot of the hard yards over the decades, he was the one that deserved whatever political dividend he got. Why should Costello have automatically shared in that? This is just the natural end product that you'd expect in a Party of the individualist.

Costello did not want to be a loosing leader, [then loose the job] & thought the libs would loose the next election. He wanted someone else to do that, & outfoxed himself, to that end. I don't think we've much lost too much.

Yes, Desmond, Turnbull, with the arrogance of a dimwitted fool, should move to the other camp. He would find another of his species, right there at the top.

With any luck, they just may eliminate eachother. That would be poetic justice.

Half a "mo". That would probably mean another of Labor's runs with some fool woman in the job.

Ruddy's bad enough, but a Helen Clarke would be even worse. With the lefts record of lady leaders, you'd think they would stop, [while they are behind], but it appears not.

Labor, excelent at lying, slogans, & electioning, hopeless at government.

Costello, not too bad at the war, hopless at winning the pease

Did you see the result sof the by elections in two Liberal blue ribbon seats?

Seats the idiot left wing press said would fall now that Tony Abbott leads the Liberals, now that the ETS has been sent down, now that Copenhagen will not see PM Rudd wearing Australia's economy as a trophy?

What a whalloping the Greens got, justly deserved, Clive Hamilton and some no name in Sydney got trounced. The ALP too gutless to stand a candidate, especially when they called the liberals gutless when they didn't stand a candidate against the ALP in their homeland? Hypocrits, where is the howling of the press now?

I laugh and laugh at the ignorant press trying to form public opinion, do you feel powerless, you should.

All the focussed hatred on Tony Abbott and the Liberals now that darling Turnbull is gone, and isn't he a poor loser.

What an excellant result.

As the media arm of the ALP you all should feel like the fools you are. Oh for some objective jouralism in Australia, if only we had a few more conservative journalists instead of the conga line of ALP suck ups, the Age the ABCLP, the Sydney Moaning Heart, etc

Party being torn apart - you wish!

Crikey odo, I’d hardly call it a walloping for the Greens in either Bradfield or Higgins.

As for the rest of your post, I think it is rather overstated. We can’t really attribute too much to the Liberal leadership change and infighting in terms of the outcomes in these two seats, can we?

I somehow think that the fact that Labor didn’t run candidates in either seat was just a slightly bigger factor!

Fair suck of the sauce bottle, Ludwig, if the Liberals had lost the seats, it would have been clear indication that the new leadership, the ETS voted down, etc would have been to blame. Don't give that crap now that it didn't matter, what utter rubbish, you shuold just admit you all got it wrong.

The left wing media, ABCLP was baying and barracking against the liberal candidates. Jon Faine on the morning ABCLP has constantly paid out on the Lib cabdidate while Clive Hamilton had guest spots morning and night to comment on all green and ETS matters .. no offers there of balance at all.

The ABCLP online ran photos of Clive Hamilton as they announced, the Libs were fortunate to keep the seat, that report is now gone in favour of reality, but it was clear last night that the darlings at the ABCLP were dissappointed their man didn't get up.

Why didn't the ALP run candidates? In PM Rudd's words, Gutless?

Oh of course, Clive Haliton, Green is a de facto ALP person, yes?

The worm is turning, the belief that the people of Australia all believed the rubbish about man made climate change, appears to be not correct, and the flailing begins - I expect the PM will give Australians abnother serve, which is just great - come on Kev, alienate some more of the community with your vitriol.

The days of being able to dismiss skeptics has gone, finally the skepticism has been revealed to be well founded, and the hysterical end of the world beliefs to be just that, hysterical rantings of people in denial that the climate will change regardless of what we do or don't do - taxes aside of course!

Oh speaking of hilarious, the ALP demanding that anyone eelse produce policies, what a joke, they didn't have any before the last election except, what Pm Howard said, and theitr only other policies, where against what PM (MOS) Howard said .. do you they think the community is so stupid that they don't remember?

Hubris anyone? Kev?

“…if the Liberals had lost the seats, it would have been clear indication that the new leadership, the ETS voted down, etc would have been to blame”

Not necessarily, Odo. People could have voted the Libs down because they saw them as a hopeless bunch of eternally infighting fools. The ETS may not have been a major factor. Anyway, that is all hypothetical now.

“Why didn't the ALP run candidates?”

Good question. They presumably thought that they didn’t have a chance of winning. But that is no excuse. Surely they should feel obligated to put up candidates in EVERY seat at every election and by-election if they possibly can. It does not reflect well on them at all.

Abbott has been critical of Labor for not putting up a contest in these two seats. I have to agree.

“Oh of course, Clive Haliton, Green is a de facto ALP person, yes?”

Clive Hamilton is greener than the Greens! He’s a real sustainability advocate.... which would make him very different from Labor!

I’m sure he’ll be back, and into federal political circles before too long, which will be a very good thing IMO.