"Let me assure you, I'm going nowhere"
- tem****ary tory leader Brenda Nelson
It's the only thing he's said since becoming
holder of the poisoned chalice that is both true
and agreed by all his party.
BWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAAA
Laurie Oakes, certainly no ALP stooge, has summed up
Nelson's problem as interim joke for the Liberal rabble;
"Brendan Nelson is blind-sided
- Laurie Oakes, Herald Sun 12/4/2008
"WHAT is it with Brendan Nelson?
Does he stand for anything?
Does he mean anything he says?
Does he realise he risks becoming a joke?
Take his comments on Kevin Rudd's visit to China.
The Opposition Leader spent weeks implying that
Rudd was too close to the Chinese.
He and shadow foreign minister Andrew Robb
challenged the Prime Minister to take a
strong line on Tibet and human rights
when he got to Beijing.
Rudd must be as tough with the Chinese
on Tibet as he has been with the Japanese
over whaling, they thundered.
Rudd, of course, did take up the issue,
and not only in his private talks with
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao.
He also went public with his concerns about
human rights abuses in Tibet in a speech
delivered to students at Beijing University
in their own language.
And what did Nelson do?
He criticised Rudd for going too far.
Can you believe it?
It was fine for the PM to make his views clear
to the Chinese leader****p behind closed doors,
the Opposition Leader told a radio interviewer.
But, he added: "I don't know whether it's wise
to have broadcast it as publicly as he seems to be doing."
Talk about pathetic."
BWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAAHAAAA!
Nelson is a Blipvert bot, he says whatever he thinks will
sound like he has something to say for a news sound grab.
Trouble is, once you hear more than one of his Blipverts
you realise he contradicts himself, and is ignored by his party..
Most Australians will be pleased that their
Prime Minister showed a bit of guts.
They will approve of his straight-talking."
Too right, at last we have a national leader who
doesn't look and act cringe-worthy, who has the guts
AND judgment to know he doesn't have to lick arse
like Howard did with our "great and powerful friends"
but can criticise where appropriate, because a) they
admire strength of character and b) they want our raw
materials.
"The Chinese were no doubt angry at Rudd's call for
them to enter negotiations with the Dalai Lama,
but that did not stop them agreeing to revive free
trade talks with Australia."
****in Ay! They are not going to lose valuable trade
over disagreement with their actions in Tibet.
"Rudd, who has made a lifelong study of China and
served there as a diplomat, took the view that
strength and toughness would win respect.
All indications are that he was right.
On the eve of his arrival in Beijing, the Chinese
tried to bluff him out of making a fuss about Tibet
by lodging diplomatic protests over earlier comments
he had made in Wa****ngton.
The Australian PM ignored the protests. Rudd walked
a diplomatic tightrope in Beijing, and did it with
skill and style.
His 17-day overseas trip has not been without stumbles,
but what had shaped as the most difficult and risky
part turned into a triumph.
The same can certainly not be said about Nelson's
so-called "listening tour" around Australia.
The strategy behind it made some sense.
The idea was that images of Nelson mixing with
ordinary people in supermarkets and at service
stations would present a stark contrast on the
evening news with Rudd strutting the world stage
and talking about matters of little interest to
suburban battlers.
But it went badly wrong.
There was a contrast all right, but hardly one
that favoured Nelson.
While Rudd was doing serious business in Wa****ngton,
photographs and TV footage of Nelson swinging from
monkey bars with kids just made him look childish.
And much of what he said in his numerous interviews
along the way - like his comment about Rudd's frankness
in Beijing - was plain embarrassing.
For the most part he seemed to be spouting random
and often inconsistent thoughts, along with odd bits
of information about his own life.
Oh, yes. And repeated references to the six guitars he owns.
One journalist described it - accurately - as "stream
of consciousness".
Over and over, Nelson told the same stories.
We heard ad nauseam about the woman at a service station
near Brisbane who could only put $5 worth of petrol in
her car, but if the anecdote had a point it was never made clear.
Another example. "One man that I met told me his son
has got, or a relative I should say, has got to wait
four months to get his kidney cancer removed.
"You ask yourself why that happens in modern Australia."
You do indeed - and Nelson, whose party was in government
until four months ago, did not offer an answer.
Throughout the tour he had no clear message, no consistent theme.
And not much authority within his party, either.
No sooner had he told an interviewer that Rudd should
attend the opening of the Beijing Olympic Games despite
human rights abuses in Tibet than two senior Liberals
contradicted him with demands for a prime ministerial boycott.
The listening tour might have been more successful if
Nelson had stuck to listening and kept his mouth shut.
As it was, all that came out of the exercise was another
poor opinion poll result and renewed talk among Liberal
MPs about whether he should be dumped as leader and
replaced by Malcolm Turnbull sooner rather than later."
It's just a matter of when.
Turnbull seems to suffer from Peter Costello's fear
of failure... a lack of ticker.
"In a way it is hard not to feel sympathy for Nelson.
The lot of an Opposition leader is not a happy one."
You have to feel sorry for anyone so obviously
among the walking dead.
"Laurie Oakes is political editor for the Nine Network.
He appears each week on the Sunday program and his
column appears every Saturday in the Herald Sun."
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Mission Accomplished
http://www.theage.com.au/ffximage/2007/11/27/OP_wideweb__470x399,2.jpg
Howard's Legacy:
http://www.theage.com.au/ffximage/2007/09/13/svOPED_wideweb__470x330,0.jpg
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"They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears
into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation,
nor will they train for war anymore." — Isaiah 2:4 & Micah 4:3
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"Where there is no vision, the people perish." - Proverbs 29:18
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The Official [Est. June 2000] aus.culture.true-blue FAQ ;
http://geocities.com/fairdinkum_trueblue/faq.html
The true-blue Homestead;
http://geocities.com/fairdinkum_trueblue/
The true-blue Hall Of Fame;
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The Tuckerbox;
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