Yes, Luciferase,

Apparently if you're a women, all kinds of sniggering school boy tactics are allowed as an extra card up sleeves.

Politics is a "men's club" mostly, and any women should expect to have herself reduced to some kind of physical/sexual caricature, and even have her partner's sexuality delved into.

That seems to be the message I'm getting (and I'm not even a Gillard fan)

This isn't about politics (except it will be deployed for political contrivance). It's about what you can say to or about a female leader that you wouldn't dream of raising with a male.

So reducing Julia to a "big red box" is fine, as is asking whether her partner is gay.

(And some will try and find comparisons with shoe throwing as a protest in response to the vicious invasions unleashed by Messrs Bush and his toady, Howard)

Howard had to put up with the smearing, often deceitful public broadcasters who said he had blood on his hands over tampa. Now with 1000 plus drowings no such accusation is made by the leftist hypocrites.

I eagerly await Abbott having to publicly defend a rumour that his wife is a transvestite.

There's no limit to how low LNP supporters will go in their effort to personally smear and not "play the ball".

Going by previous efforts duting the Whitlam/Hawke/Keating years, it's "in their DNA".

Pickering's cartoons of Gillard sodomising people with with a strap-on dildo were very popular with many of these people and go much further than those he did during the Whitlam era.

As for the Brough menu, I believe there was a similar one at the Liberal dinner where Alan Jones made his "died of shame" comment, so why the big surprise?

Yes, well, runner...are you suggesting that Howard's decision regarding the Tampa should have been left without critique?

Allowing human beings to ride around on the deck of a container ship bobbing about in the tropical sun while you work out your political contingency, doesn't exactly leave you in high stead.

Runner,
The refugee accusations about Howard were about the Siev-X, not the Tampa and we never did get to hear the full story about that one.

Keeping some sort of score reminds me of when a State Liberal claimed they had a lower body count when in power after the Granville train disaster.

There were rumors about Howard's alleged infidelity with a certain celebrity and some facts about the "parties" he used to throw in his offices as a Treasurer under Fraser but he was never confronted with these in the media was he?

I think if Larry Pickering had done that Menu as a Caricature nothing would have been said. Usually naked, usually naked. Ah ha, you laughed. ;-)

I’ve seen much worse emails jokes done on all PM’s & most public figures since I first got the internet in 1990.

Everything is feigned indignation for an advantage. The Media just lap it all up & stir the pot to sell papers. They don’t really care & I just bet she doesn’t care either. It’s just another “gotcha.”

I don’t like ism’s either, but, be honest, we all have a chuckle at times. People in the Public Arena are always fair game.