CJ,

Yes, I think the broad church of anti Rodentials have reached consensus on our responsibility to set the Rat Trap. Unfortunately this consensus has not been given strategic traction in terms of developing a coalition of the “willing” to get rid of King Rat”.

Deals with the Greens and Dems on preferences (vital to Labor victory) are no doubt being discussed in the back rooms.

But this needs to be out in the open, now, not at a few days before the booths open.

16 seats is a big ask. Last minute deals will not do. Maxine (and not party heavies) needs to be given a free hand on this

I live in the Bennelong division (East Ryde), and I'm a natural liberal voter; professional, middle class etc etc.

I've never voted ALP my whole life, and would naturally vote liberal in any election.

But I could never vote for John Howard now or in the future for one single reason; Iraq.

You just can't tell the electorate that Australia must go to war against another power for specifics reasons, which turn out to be false and expect to get away with it.

Like many at the time, I supported the war because I thought 'this government is so certain we must do this, surely we have to trust that they know something they can't tell us'. At some point you have to trust your leaders, or just go mad. Everytime I see another atrocity in Iraq I think 'I voted for that to happen'.

None of their reasons were remotely valid, and I just can't vote for someone who just brazenly lies like that.

So with a very heavy heart I will be voting ALP at the federal election on this issue alone; I feel it is a moral choice.

What depresses me even more is that the widespread hatred of JH within NSW is killing the chances of the liberal opposition in the upcoming state election. In terms of sheer incompetence this state labour government is something unique, and the state needs a change as much as the country does.

cheers,

gw

What would be the implications of John Howard standing as a candidate and failing to win Bennelong at the next Federal elections, but the Coalition nevertheless being returned to government?

It would seem that, with the Liberal party prospectively having lost its leader in circumstances creative, overnight, of political folklore, but still having retained government, there would be a need for an immediate leadership ballot.

What a 'pure' environment for a leadership contest! This spill would not have been engineered by previously acknowledged aspirants to the position of Prime Minister, but brought about by the VOTERS (of Bennelong), who must, at a time so close to an election (yea, with that election not yet even finalized), be RESPECTED. In the rush to show this 'respect', old pledges of loyalty, and old obligations amongst members of the parliamentary Liberal Party to erstwhile 'heirs apparent' may well be seen as having little relevance in the (very) short lead-up to the ballot. There would have been no backstabbing, no plotting of the like that took down Simon Crean and Kim Beasley, or long ago, John Gorton. Just pure happenstance.

The clear need for New Direction, Bold Vision, and a Clean Break from the Image of Yesteryear would surely be self-evident to all parliamentary Liberal Party members, but just in case it isn't, a veritable galaxy of commentators would be ready at hand to do their thinking for them! Now who could possibly fill the bill?

Yes, the electors in the Division of Wentworth will bear a heavy responsibility at the 2007 Federal elections. Oops, did I say Wentworth? Of course I meant Bennelong! Bennelong, did you hear? Bennelong.

Now this surely couldn't have been the plan all along, could it? That would imply bi-partisan collusion! Now that just couldn't happen, not in Australia, could it?

Behold, the good shepherd giveth his life (whether he know it or not) for he whom he doth shepherd.

Just thinking out loud.....

A PM looking like a dead (forget lame) duck in his own constituency is hardly a solid foundation to take to the electorate. What chances are there that, if Rudd and McKew and the ALP continue to gain real traction that the Libs will dump Rattus Maximus before the polls?

With visions of electoral defeat and members in marginal seats looking over their shoulders, the enlightened forces of protecting one's own as.. sorry, self-preservation may just become strong enough to prompt a revolt.

After all, in the immortal words of Sir Humphrey Appleby: 'politics is about surviving until Friday afternoon'

What a gloriously igominious end to our little Caesar.

I'm not sure the Libs have the cojones to dump JH ahead of time, but I'm wondering whether he himself will take this opportunity to depart before the election, of his own accord.

By walking away he avoids the possibility of humiliation, which is an experience he will travel to the moon to avoid.

I suspect that, having the personality he has, he still broods over his treatment at the hands of Keating (remember the "yesterday's man, a cultural artefact like the Astor TV, the AWA radiogram and the Morphy Richards toaster" jibe?), and probably still smarts from the palace coup that ousted him in 1989.

If he does walk away, he will be handing a poisoned chalice to Costello. In fact, more like an exploding poisoned chalice, if the metaphor will stretch that far.

And I believe that he is sufficiently mean, devious, grudge-bearing, arrogant and self-centred to do exactly that.

Go Maxine Go!

I hope the electorate sees the light and gets rid of this mean, visionless liar.