Hi Foxy, I have said many times on the forum that I actually have great respect for politicians. Having met a few over the years, and seeing the effort and commitment most put in, I unlike some on here, do not take the cynical view that they are all low life's that ought to be run out of town. That goes for polys, of all persuasions.

Having said that, back to Bonking Barney.

The vultures are circling, politically Barney is a dead duck, the only one who doesn't realise it is Barney. Yesterday the heir apparent in the Nationals, Michael McCormack refused to support Barnyards leadership, until pushed to the limit, and then it was only half-hearted at best.

"The bosses of the National Party have held a phone hook-up to discuss Barnaby Joyce's future as the party's leader." What does that tell you?

Labor should deliver the 'coup de grâce' to poor old Barney when parliament resumes. If he had any thought for the Coalition he would have resigned last week, but being the selfish bloke he is, thinking only of himself he's trying to tough it out.

Dear Paul,

Barnaby should do the decent thing and simply resign.
He should have done that right at the beginning of
this farce. He did not do that when it came to the
question of his dual citizenship - and he certainly
is not about to do it now. He does not deserve to be in
any sort of leadership role. This is not a question of
his having had sex with a staffer. This is a question
of his breaking Ministerial standards - which he's clearly
done and needs to be held accountable. Others have resigned
for much less. He needs to be kicked out - and the Nationals
should simply do that. The guy's a grub!

Anything that draws social attention ceases to be anything but public

I have definite concerns over publicising details of the others involved in this but in regard to Barnaby a couple of issues come to mind. One is his public stance on family values and opposition to same sex marriage km that basis. The hypocrisy deserves outing.

The other is as deputy PM he has placed himself in a compromised position which could have left him open to blackmail. I have no idea what personal choices he would have made if the suggestion had been put that if he did not want details in the public he might do some little thing. Might be hard to resist if that first thing is small enough then once on the hook it's all gets worse.

Perhaps he was ready for public disclosure at the slightest sniff of pressure. We may never know but it's not a good look to place himself in that position and shows very poor judgement for someone as close to power as he is.

R0bert

The useless lug has finally bowed to pressure from both within the National Party and from most of the community, and handed in the leadership of the Party, and the Deputy PM job.

http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/feb/23/in-this-mess-of-his-own-creation-barnaby-joyces-self-pity-was-repulsive