Shorter Deputy PM’s testimony to the Cole Inquiry:
Anyone who had arrived in Australia for the first time yesterday and wandered into the commission’s hearings would have been convinced that this was a country of very dull and dim folk for this fellow to have ascended to the great office of deputy prime minister.
Elsewhere: Over at Surfdom, excerpts from Vaile’s testimony. The transcript is here. [pdf]
Update: The Australian reports that Vaile tried to shift the blame to Downer. Howard last night said that he didn’t believe that any Ministers had done anything wrong on the basis of “information he’d been advised of”, or words to that effect. Given Rudd’s powerful claim that Downer is in breach of Australian law, is Howard setting Downer up to lance the boil and take the fall?
Elsewhere [by MB]: More from Darryl Mason.
So, Vaile has gone on holidays. Aren’t there any enterprising journalists out there who can track the idiot down? Where’s Richard Carlton?
Does anyone else watch SkyNews? It’s political reporter, David Speer, while not yet in the league of Piers Ackerman or Andrew Bolt, is right up there with Shanahan and Hartcher as being apologists, or maybe even spokespeople, for the Howard Government. Last night he cheerfully announced that Vaile pretty well handled everything the enquiry threw at him. He must have been watching a different show to the rest of the media, who gave Vaile the bucketing he deserved.
Tonight, although we didn’t have vision, he must have had a decent sized lump in the groin while describing how triumphant Dolly was and how he played a straight bat to everything tossed up at him today. Is he the Simone Warne of political reporting or what? Will he really be the last to lose patience with the lies and deceit, a la Simone? Unfortunately for him, straight after his piece, the anchor announced the results of their straw poll, which had belief in Downer at a juicy 17%. Sort of made his spin on things look a bick sickly.
David Speer. Speerchucker for the Libs? Or just another poonce in the pocket of the Murdoch media. Methinks it’s the latter.
And so does Simone!
Think what you like, the majority of people could not care less. Saddam is a crook, the UN is corrupt and all the AWB was trying to do was to sell farmers wheat.
This AWB thing is a dead duck, or dead parrot if you want to follow Monty Python.
But do carry on..
Rog:
Tend to agree. It’s getting that way that I really can’t tell the difference between the spin doctors and media claque on one hand and on the other, the rabid propagandists I had to put up with in a previous life.
John Pilger, please return now; your country needs you.
So you’ve been saying all along, rog, but the polls tell a different story.
Hypothetically if an election was held yesterday the Libs would have narrowly lost but who would win, pollsters preferred ALP leader Gillard with 31% to beezers 20%.
Very sensible on the part of the Great Australian Public, rog. A Labor government with Gillie as PM.
“Think what you like, the majority of people could not care less. ”
You may well be right on that, Rog. But one cause for alarm is that the tabloids are now front-paging the thing. While it was only the broadsheets, there wasn’t so much to worry about.
On past form, whatever findings will probably not lead to any resignations but it may be harder to brazen the whole thing out.