Well the press gallery and commentariat have certainly covered themselves in glory this week, breaking irrelevant stories years after the fact - I’ll tell ya, nothing gets past this mob in their rush to the heliograph.
KEVIN Rudd’s hopes of becoming Prime Minister have been rocked by a visit to a New York strip club where he was warned against inappropriate behaviour during a drunken night while representing Australia at the United Nations.
So, what headlines to the bylines are coming up this week for our fearless defenders of the truth, investigative journalism and cogent commentary?
Elvis is dead! Michael Brissenden. Kennedy Shot! By Matt Price. Holt drowns! By Michelle Grattan. Garrett was a rock star! by Malcolm Farr.
Can anyone take these clowns seriously? And these are the guys that claim bloggers are trivia focused lightweights who can’t break the really big stories. Peter Beattie got Milne right when he said on today’s
But so what if he’s had a few too many drinks - I’ve seen journalists do that on national television
Heck I’d love to regale you with tales of me closing the Mens Gallery after a very big night in Melbourne (yes I ran out of twenties), but it might end up as a beatup in a Milne column three years from now.
In fact I find it refreshing that Rudd had a drink or two and felt comfortable enough to go to the club with that poster boy of News Limited press reptiles Col Allan; this gives Rudd a lot in common with quite a few red blooded Australian blokes, many of whom may be more inclined to vote for the guy knowing he likes the odd drink and the ladies.
Anyway the last word goes to Col Allan.
Yes, it was at a gentleman’s club and he (Mr Rudd) behaved like a perfect gentleman
End. Of. Story.
They never learn those clowns at the Liberal Party dirt unit. They’re still waiting for the bounce following the brilliant Burke affair.
I saw the Channel Seven morning show today, and all four presenters thought it would do nothing BUT good for Rudd’s image, especially the two female presenters. They read out a couple of emails, all supporting Rudd.
And one of the presenters, Samantha Armitage, said with a cheeky grin, Kevin 07 was in heaven. All priceless and very good for Rudd.
Those idiots just never learn and they really are idiots.
Phil
I don’t think you apprecaite the enormity of this. Obviously Pavlov’s Cat, Kim, tigtog, and of course Head of the Presbyterian Feminazi’s Commonroom, laura, will all be demanding he resign for his “inappropriate” and sexist ways. Psssttt….I have heard there was actually a pole-dancer at this club and cheeky Kevvie slipped her a few greenbacks; for her cab home, you see.
The moment Milne would rather we all forget:
John, you’re an idiot.
John, we’re a broad church here at LP mate. And yes I’m hoping Kevin07 ran out of twenties, though sadly that wasn’t the case, it still looks like he was born to be mild.
Personally, I don’t think it’s a big deal. But I think the reaction hereabouts would have been very different if it’d been John Howard or Peter Costello.
It might be acceptable for ‘red-blooded Australian blokes’ to get drunk and go to a strip club, but surely you set a higher standard for somebody who is representing our country?
What does that mean? He’s not on duty 24/7. Who hasn’t ever been in another city on a work trip and kicked up their heels at night? This is total nonsense. Non story. Like Phil said.
Ian, the standard I set is that our representatives have a whole and full life experience. I don’t trust anyone who claims otherwise.
Not irrelevant at all; it’s The Permanent Election Phil…stiffen up
First it was the Neilsen poll & Haneef Doorstop Inc; this WE it’s
The Newspoll & Rude Nude Rudd Inc…
Must have missed Dolly’s DFAT Diplomatic Do’s & Don’ts but -
http://www.metacafe.com/watch/93563/strip_club_dos_donts/
Next: The Great Eumundi Tuck Shop Scandal…tres norty
Um, no Rob, refer to my previous comment.
I don’t think we’ll ever know for sure, Phil
Hardly imaginable with Howard anyway.
My point, too, Kim. But is that a good thing or a bad thing?
Becky takes a pointed swipe here.
One suspects that Kruddy would have to be caught in bed with (as they say) a dead girl or a live boy for any mud to stick. As noted above, I believe this will go the way of the Burke “scandal”.
hannah wrote on the other thread:
http://larvatusprodeo.net/2007/08/15/election-speculation/#comment-394097
There are two relevant issues here.
1. Contrary to what Greenfield assumes, I don’t have a problem with the existence of strip clubs if they’re properly regulated, crime free and the women working in them are doing so voluntarily and being properly paid. So I don’t know that you’d get unanimity among people who agree that the “personal is the political”.
2. But in a sense, it’s not. This is all reminiscent of the “character” bullshit that kicked off in US politics with Gary Hart being stalked by the press to find out if he was cheating on his wife in the 88 primaries, and really got going with Bill Clinton. The crazed moralism of the Clinton impeachment demonstrated that Americans rightly distinguished between his personal sexual ethics (and the Lewinsky thing is a lot more troubling than going to a strip club) and his performance as a politician. Look at Kennedy, for goodness’ sakes. Firstly, we’ve got to ask whether the lack of much policy differentiation between Rudd and Howard means that “character” is the basis for choosing between them. If so, that’s a poor look out for Australian politics if we can’t have an actual contest of ideas. Secondly, we’ve got to look at the ethics of the media in raising this - “Rudd talked to Christians last week and lauds his churchgoing” and “Rudd was overseas on a publicly funded trip” are both questionable justifications.
There will be a lot of other pollies worrying if this sort of thing becomes commonplace.
Hardly imaginable with Howard anyway.
Watch out for a leaked amateur video of Howard entering a strip bar in the next few months to match Kevin’s effort.
Kim
Mah, deah, you are a very confused, ethically-incoherent hypocrite. But delightful, harmless, entertainment, nevertheless.
It’s an irrelevant thing to me, Rob.
We might find out soon though - I suspect some Coalition Ministers haven’t been leading saintly lives and there may well be some retaliatory shots fired - or at least the threat made to shut down this “issue”.
Me suspects that Kim (though more likely, Mark) will cut this thread soon. And voila, in a week’s time, Kim will start a thread challenging posters to donate to an NGO that “helps” strippers. Ah, the cycle of luvviedom, never stops.
John, shut up mate unless you have something useful to say, this is my thread and as many commenters know I don’t follow LP’s comments policy, I’m a dictator and you comment here at my discretion only with no correspondence entered into.
SANCTIMONIOUS TWADDLE
Glenn Milne - ‘the demon drink shall never pass my lips’ - of all people. Note to Editors: his pieces on drunken foolishness should always be accompanied by a warning to the reader:
“GM is a recovering alcoloholic.” or
“GM says, “Do as I say, boys; not as I do!” ”
SQUIRM FACTOR
Watch the feminist pro-Ruddites squirm when asked about it. Amusement guaranteed.
EMMA RULES !!
Emma Alberici wouldn’t go to a strip club. She’s our candidate, then.
cheerio
I’m a feminist not-very-keen-on-Kevin07-ite and I’m not squirming…
And I’m an anti Rudd pro feminist guy who has seen the odd stripper and who would have loved to party with Kevin03 in NY, and I’m not squirming either
Oh, I’m sorry, maybe some folks don’t understand what this is about, it’s not about feminism this is about media and politics. Guess what, any feminazi comments on this thread will be moderated. starting with….?
If any commenters want to attack the women who write/comment here they can do it somewhere else.
Meh, it will go down badly with some parts of the electorate. I don’t think it will change many votes - Rudd, like Howard, just doesn’t have the right personality to appeal to the bogan male demographic who frequent strip shows. Though I think the assessment of Peter Beattie and a few others - (it just proves Rudd is a real man!) is a little dumb. But as for JG’s comment:
I don’t think you appreciate the enormity of this…
Way, way over the top.
I take your point on the “real man” thing TimT, after all this was just one hour after a long day probably, so it hardly makes the man into some kind of dinkum bloke……which he clearly is not. And even Costello isn’t a man’s man. Let’s face it the country is run by egghead political and policy wonks/nerds.
Well well a question of character according to Mr Milne, because apparently, ‘Rudd is in public life’. I presume he meant there, that Rudd was running for election, not that he was a ‘public figure’ because after all, that could apply to any number of the overblown over paid and underperforming bloviators of the press Gallery, like Mr Milne.
It certainly could not mean that Milne thinks that a candidate for the Office of PM could never be drunk does it? I mean that nice Mr Howard had a very ‘emotional time’ according to the biographers, in those far off days in the wilderness. ‘Wild parties’ was the term employed.
So it boils down to going to a strip club. Is it the type of strip club or is it the nature of these establishments themselves? If the latter, I look forward to a sophisticated and nuanced debate lead by the Press Gallery, of course, on sexual politics, politics and sex. It won’t be amusing, but it certainly will be illuminating, as we watch them roil and roll in the mess of their contradictory, complicit and craven behaviour.
I love how Milne (”The Poison Dwarf”) managed to drop a grubby piece of innuendo into the story based, of course, on an anonymous source.
I wonder if it was the same source that was whispering things about Mark Latham’s bucks night video - you know, the video that has yet to surface (for the very good reason that it no doubt never existed in the first place).
So who’s done this? A good place to start would be the usual suspects in the very hard feral right of the NSW Liberal Party. The same people who slimed former moderate-ish NSW Liberal Leader john Brodgen (resulting in a suicide attempt) and tried - very unsuccessfully - to slime Bob Debus, as well as Justice Kirby………am I missing any other victims of the Lib gutter trawlers out there?
If only she would.
*sighs*
I really can’t see this affecting Rudd negatively - about 95% of the news.com.au comments are running in his favour.
In a weird way, this will probably reassure a decent number of ‘blokey’ men that Rudd is not a total cleanskin.
The issue isn’t that Rudd went to a strip club. The issue - easily identified by its omission here - is that he was apparently asked to leave.
Tim, the reason that’s a non issue here is that Allan says Rudd behaved like a total gentleman, e-mail him (I’m sure he’s in your address book) and ask him to tell us what really happened there then we’ll be talking about that believe me. otherwise that’s just a game of smear and innuendo by you.
Will the real Sir Les Patterson please stand up?
Aussie male goes overseas, gets drunk and ogles women.
I’d say he represents Australia perfectly.
And here you have the true grubbiness of the smear. The alleged ‘issue’ is probably being ‘omitted’ because there is no evidence whatsoever that it happened. In fact it’s been denied by the three people who were there. Nevertheless the smear will no doubt be repeated at every opportunity until the election.
It will be coupled with the smear that Rudd was too drunk to remember anything about the night. This is Milne’s dishonest and malicious misrepresentation of what Rudd actually said, namely that he didn’t recall any incidents like the gossip being reported.
I feel that unfortunately the cumulative impact of the smears will be significant. Remember that this is the mob that was quite prepared to defame a High Court judge under parliamentary privilege using forged documents. They will simply keep inventing stories which will gain certain credence in the community. Even normally measured commenters and Tim himself over at Blogocracy are already repeating the “too drunk to remember what happened” line crafted by Milne.
When politicians and journalists are prepared to abandon any standards of ethical conduct the population at large is left in a very precarious position. We’ve seen in the USA how political careers can be destroyed by muck-raking and there’s no reason to think we’re somehow above that sort of thing. Rather the opposite, I would have thought.
Rudd claims that Downer is behind this.
Is this the first sign of the veil slipping? Or is it as many here argue just an aberration? Because I really don’t know, and I want to know.
Tell me the real Kevin Rudd is not the wishy-washy, shallow sounding, lip-licking nerd we see presented to us on TV every night. Because that’s not who I want to run my country.
Please tell me there is some real substance to this man, and he is a man of principle, despite his tiresome mirroring of every move Mr Howard makes. This could be just the opportunity Mr Rudd needs to show us who he really is. I hope he does it.
Just saw on ABC that KR suspects Downer may have had some part in this. Following the (non reported) Morgan Poll, panic has set in. How dirty will the next 3 months get?
This might be a touch Machiavellian, but could it also be deliberate ploy by the ALP/Rudd to help counter his prissy image?
As another commenter has already noted many comments were running about 9/1 in his favour.
The only smoke from this little political bushfire would be if he really was asked to leave the club for groping.
As it stands he gets to wave allegations of a smear job around, get a few bogan votes he might have missed and thats about it.
We all know politics is a dirty game and, after this week in particular, we can be sure there is a lot known by insiders which we will never know. (Unless of course this tit-for-tat game escalates—we may find out more than anybody hoped for.)
But for goodness sakes; Mr Rudd is now playing the victim card, rather than taking responsibility for his own actions? Please.
No doubt there would have been some reporting out of NY. Maybe this is the one cable that Downer actually did read? Well, being Foreign Minister is a busy job, you can’t read everything.
Unless you’re Gareth Evans, of course.
(Sigh) I wish the normally sensible commenters on here were not in such a rush to reassure everybody that of course strip clubs are just a normal part of blokedom, of course the women are all doing this stuff because they really prefer it and of course the pornulation of everything and the insistence of providing naked female flesh everywhere for male enjoyment is just fine and dandy.
Because, of course there is no alternative besides “strip club habituee” and “wowser”, in this excessively manichaean society of ours. (Thanks Hannah, brave woman.)
I still think strip clubs are pathetic and the people who frequent them are equally so. But Kev doesn’t strike me as the kind of person whose idea it would have been to go. it sounds more likely it was Col Allan’s idea. Which brings me to ask: isn’t it more of a worry that Rudd is hanging out with editors from the gutter press (New York Post)?
Was this the huge bomb that we were told some journos had in store for us which was meant to be dropped when the election was called? If so, it’s a bit of premature ejaculation, pardon the pun.
or less to it than meets the eye
It’s all about tits, the rest is tat.
Goodness, had nothing to do with it. ‘Dobber Downer’ is hardly the victim card and it’s up to Dolly to work out how he wants to handle his role (cartoonists can dust off the school uniform)
This could be it Helen, we’ll see. If Rudd did stuff a few benjamins into the g-string and got a few lappys then he’s pretty well gone I guess, however if nothing comes of this in the next few days then it’ll just be the smear it looks like.
One last thing though, I’d be pretty worried if I were a Liberal MP with a skeleton in my closet, gutter politics is MAD territory.
Oh, and won’t the minor parties look like a good option the bigs and the gallery continue with their gutter politics and commentary.
“Rudd claims that Downer is behind this.”
The backstory in Milne’s piece mentioned “Australian diplomats” (presumably UN-based) being “aware of the incident” so it’s highly likely that Downer obtained the info through DFAT channels and has been sitting on it for a while, waiting for a slow news day………
I suspect that the hook was supposed to be the “inappropriate behaviour” smear (what’s “appropriate” behaviour for a pollie in a strip joint? Reading briefing papers?) but Col Allan looks to have deep-sixed the potential for getting traction out of that.
I agree with Beattie. If anything, this is likely to endear Rudd to the punters but I’m picking that the aim
was to quite specifically blow a hole in the “Christian” appeal factor which has pissed the Coalition off mightily given their sense that it’s their natural constituency.
The really interesting story would be to investigate how this came to light……….
Well I’m game.
If it had been Howard I’d be outraged. Since it was Kevin I don’t mind so much.
I’m a biased hypocrite, just like millions of other people.
See, they arise, the gatekeepers of the media!
See how they decide what is news and what is not!
But be not afraid, people - they are but few, while ye are many.
“All sins can be forgiven, justified or ignored in the rush to get Labor back into office. Your hypocrisy is so astonishing it can’t be parodied. First Ayaan Hirsi Ali and now this.
Let’s face it if a Lib had done it, it would have been male chauvinist sexism. If Kevin does it it just makes him more human and less of a “public office-seeking missileâ€?.”
This is crap, Kimba. First of all, we already KNOW Liberal politicians have done this sort of stuff time and time again. It just doesn’t usually make it into the papers. This crappy little story about Rudd has, and it’s fair to ask why and speculate on its impact without getting into tut-tuuting about exploitation in the sex industry.
What is hypocritical is someone saying ‘Ohmigod that’s it, I’m changing my vote back to Howard’ on the strength of Rudd’s one night on the town, having cheerfully ignored (for the last five to ten years) Howard’s record on the slightly weightier issues of personal integrity, baby-murdering in Iraq, human rights infringements etc etc [insert pet issue here].
Perspective, Australia. Perspective! *Bangs head on desk*
“Because, of course there is no alternative besides “strip club habitueeâ€? and “wowserâ€?, in this excessively manichaean society of ours. (Thanks Hannah, brave woman.)”
Well there’s the gay NY strip club alternative of course, Helen, which might have offered a whole exciting new take on “strip club habituee” and “wowser,” had Col Allan been smart enough to have thought of it…..
I thought these guys were slick operators?
The only bit of this that looks bad for Kev is the groping (implied in the article, no witnesses or outright allegation) and the mealy mouthed “I dont remember” when quizzed on it.
Hard to say what other answer he could have given though.
Rudd has enough detractors in his own party for Downer to automatically get the blame for this one.
Oh, and won’t the minor parties look like a good option the bigs and the gallery continue with their gutter politics and commentary.
Mmm-hm.
Just when we were all starting to think there is no difference between Howard and Rudd.
Ah, so what, Rudd was just letting off a little steam! You know, showing some of that good old Aussie irreverence that’s been a cornerstone of our nation since Gallipoli!
I could understand a drunken night in NY ending up in a strip club…when you are maybe 22…
I’m just wondering out of all the places in NYC that he could have gone - why there?
Given Rudd’s supposed ‘clean’ image I tend to agree with those that think he was encouraged to go and having had a few didn’t have the foresight to say no or perhaps just go to a bar or do a jig in times square.
I doubt it will have much of an effect on public sentiment though as most of those who object to it on moral grounds aren’t going to be running to Howard anytime soon.
If anything it might grab a few of the votes in certain parts of QLD?
If that’s the best dirt they’ve got, the libs are in serious trouble….
m
“I love how Milne (â€?The Poison Dwarfâ€?) managed to drop a grubby piece of innuendo into the story based, of course, on an anonymous source.”
I watched Glenn Milne on Insiders today. I know a thing or two about body language as I have taught numerous classes on it to university students. When asked about the “allegation” of Rudd being warned about inappropriate behaviour, every nonverbal indication by Milne was suggesting that he was lying. I have seen so many examples of classic body language when people are lying. Many politicians have learnt to mask it, but clearly Milne hasn’t done so. I have no doubt that he was being deceitful.
Either Milne is desperate for a big headline or he is doing the government’s bidding with its usual deceitfulness and grubby tactics.
Ken,
Err.. Tim works for Rupert, remember? He toes the corporate line. Remember? And now that he’s “inside the tent” he gets to hear all the campfire conversation.
Newsflash. Anonymous body language expert clears Mr Rudd of inappropriate behaviour allegations.
Rubbish. If you accept Mr Rudd’s version of events, he can’t even say with any certainty what he did that night (too drunk, don’t you know?).
Snowden’s response.
“It’s just not true, it’s a beat up, someone’s creative imagination and there’s nothing in it,” he said.
“This is just a giant beat-up coming from a journalist who was himself the subject of some concern because of his public display of drunkenness on national television.”
Mr Snowdon said he felt “intimidated” by the environment and he and Mr Rudd left after about 40 minutes.
“We stayed for a reasonably short length of time, nothing untoward happened and we left,” he said.
And as someone on Poll Bludger has pointed out, Milne’s wife works for Crosby/Textor and the “Revelation” was leaked today, when Newspoll are polling.
And we all know who Newspool’s preffered media outlet is.
“Cue Twilight Zone Music”
Newsflash. Anonymous body language expert clears Mr Rudd of inappropriate behaviour allegations.
Anyone can allege anything, TOSY. It’s providing any evidence of it that’s Milne’s problem. It’s a wonder that Milne has the gall to comment at all, given his own abysmal record.
Here a fairly relevant line, from the GG:
Im sorry, whats the story here?
“Man goes to pub shock”?
And whats the bet this absolute fizzer is also the rumoured “Shock revelations” some SMH journo has allegedly been sitting on?
If anything, it make Krudd seem even more boring to me.
Tony, you miss the point. Rudd is not being cleared of anything. I’m just saying that Milne was showing all the classic signs of someone lying when he was talking about the “anonymous” person who alleged that Rudd was behaving inappropriately.
Make of that what you will. But frankly, I wouldn’t put much faith in the details of Milne’s story.
Downer is stupid enough to have not thought? this through, and may just come back to cost the Libs big time. If he is behind it, obviously Ratty has given the nod, and the way Ratty has been lately, well , drowning not waving.
As an aside, can someone tell me any front bencher in the Libs.; that they have any respect for?, I tried and can’t bring one to mind.
OK Noocat, let’s just say for the sake of your argument that Milne was lying about this point; it will now be very difficult for Mr Rudd to challenge him on it given his own, shall we say, haziness about the night in question.
Like a few others, I’m feeling somewhat relieved KRudd has a streak of falliability.
That same source has also been hawking artifacts from John Howard’s buck’s night. Video formats in Howard’s heyday included granite, shale and sandstone.
Howard better hope this dies a fairly rapid death, lest people start investigating his own ancient history. I have heard that back in the 70s, the most outrageous parties in Canberra were thrown by John Winston Howard - and there was much debauchery by him and his guests. Hard to imagine I know , but there’s more. The biggest open secret among the insiders in the circle-jerk called the Canberra press gallery is the exact nature of Howard’s relationship with Pru Goward. They were having an affair for years, but it never gets mentioned due to a gentleman’s agreement.It was apparently a major contributing factor in Jeanette’s refusal to live in Canberra.
What if, as a result of a forensic examination of Rudd’s “character”, the gloves come off on private vs public morality in Australia?
Actually the more I think about it the more annoyed I become about all of this in-house, off-the-record, well-known but not-for-general-consumption, dinner-party-only information which we, the people, are being protected from (for our own good of course).
The relationship between politicians and the press-gallery is bordering on incestuous—but we the public are the victims. Oh, and the truth of course.
no, no. This story, as media managers rightly know, serves a v. useful purpose. It provides a faux-shock revelation that can entertain males in the time-honoured conspiratorial ways: guffawing, winking and chuckling at the camaraderie felt with a bloke just being a bloke, y’know, or alternatively, the frisson of being given an opportunity to think of a normally taboo subject, express one’s profound disappointment, and feel superior, and exempt - all at the same time. So satisfying and it has been a while between drinks, no?
Not Kev stripped bare, stupid, but Artemis. She who must not be gazed on or touched. Very transgressive. But you must still face Her in the morning, boys. And with a hang-over and bad headlines too boot.
*roaring with cosmic laughter*
My take here.
This is not a story and no one gives a rats. Will not change one vote!
The thread has gone much as I expected.
Its a complicated matter cos our party loyalties have been overlaid with sexual politics.
My wife first introduced me to the term and the underlying concepts of the ‘personal is political’ decades ago, well before Hart et al.
It goes something like this I think:
A persons life experiences feed into their political opinions and the political environment in toto, that which is considered normal and acceptable [or otherwise], feeds back into the person in a circle.
As a male [hannah is my dog] it took me a long time to understand that and to come to terms with it.
It took me a long time to learn that sexist jokes [its only a joke dear], sexist practices [well there will always be sexual exploitation of women, its natural,been around for yonks…..it’s normal] and so on were excusing and thus perpetuating sexual exploitation.
A strip club is a commercial enterprise that makes money out of paying women to expose their bodies to men who pay the owner to be allowed to do so.
I don’t find that a socially acceptable practice.
And I dont think that Rudd should have been a part of it, by doing so his personal practices and ethics are condoning sexual exploitation.
What goes round comes round.
Lets not confuse this issue with other issues.
Iraq for example has been mentioned.
I condemn Howard and co. for their actions in that respect.
But that is separate from this and has to be so otherwise every issue becomes negated by comparison to every other.
What Tony of Sth Yarra says
Col Allan has challenged the story of inappropriate behaviour, being a NY journo with a cast-iron liver who would require 3 bottles of vodka just to get a wee bit squiffy, and he says nothing happened.
It may or may not be an issue out in mum and dad TV land (though I tend to think it will be). But, for what it’s worth, all the blogs I’ve visited today have devoted unique threads to this topic, and they’re generating huge numbers of comments.
It really irritates me the way these non events get blown out of proportion. No wonder we are all so cynical. The people who were actually with Rudd at the time, Col Allan and Warren Snowden both stated that he acted like a gentleman and that they were only there for a short time as the atmosphere was a bit “intimidating”. That should be it, one would think.
I don’t think Rudd is some kind of drunken street cruiser when he’s out of town. In fact, given that he was in NY on UN business and was Shadow Foreign Affairs Minister at the time, getting legless and feeling-up the dancers is a ludicrous assertion.
Scores Club Manhattan is billed as New York’s premier gentlemen’s club. It is crowded, trendy, upmarket and expensive. It has full service restaurant and bars. It’s not some sleazy back alley strip joint.
That the journalist concerned suggested they pop in for a drink does not surprise me, as it’s the sort of flashy place certain types of men on expense accounts would go to. I don’t think Snowdon or Rudd would have suggested they go to a strip club and have a piss-up and a perv.
Who told Dolly about it anyway?
C’mon, this is just a Liberal hit-job.
Let’s face it, Liberals virtually invented the whispering campaign in this country. If you could verify and add up all the smears, character assassinations, dirty political hit-jobs, I bet you’d find the Libs are responsible for the overwhelming majority of them (often against enemies on their own side).
Both sides are NOT equally to blame for importing from the US this really grubby style of personal politics. I doubt there would be a single ALP candidate for a winnable seat that hasn’t had to put up with this kind of thing in recent years. Liberal candidates don’t have to put up with it to anywhere near the same extent. I may be biased, but I’m sure in private most honest - honest - Liberal party members would admit that this is true.
Gay and serial-adulterer seem the most popular, but the one I love the most is occult-leanings (that was spread among church-goers in my electorate)…………the occult one was pretty funny.
Lefty E at 5.01 is on the money. At any location overseas there will be regular haunts that our overseas missions are expected to have up their sleeves when visiting dignitaries are in town. They need to be safe but interesting and it’s part of the job of the mission staff to know about them. No doubt Col Allen, from what I read about him, knew a few as well.
The fact that Kevin07 was actually there is not an issue. What happened: well, who remembers what?
My problem with what Col Allan says, apart from him being a part of this polly-journo inner-circle, is that he seems to be the likely source of the story, and as such is doing his own bit of strategic arse covering.
You are on the money there PDLeftist, I sorta felt sorry for Pru’s partner, then decided that they are all in the same cauldron, Mrs. Ratty blind eye for status and the thrill, Ratty sewing things up, Mr. Pru gaining from all and sweet Pru a life of ease,paid by us, not maybe awarded by being vertical.
The Libs: really should be careful on this, and their yappers,
look back in history and I think they well be advised not to turn over rocks, just maybe a Hef: Sneddon: Lyons, Peacock, Abbott,Downer, Andrews and many others may just fail the “holier than though’ test.
Its not really a big deal to me, but i think the best way through for him as a person in public leadership is to reflect honestly on the event and respond with truthful integrity.
If Rudd is silly he can play the victim or run the clinton “i did not have sexual ideations with those women” line, or, he can act humbly, acknowledge his poor judgement and apologise for any offense it has caused to his colleagues, family, fellow christians and to women.
Tony of South Yarra is flogging a dead horse. I have done my own market reaearch at the local this afternoon and the response is ….. SFW.
Please produce any evidence that Downer’s little smear campaign will do anything but improve Rudd’s esteem with the public.
His supporters don’t care and the waverers are excited because he is actually human.
Read Peter Beattie for how this is going down.
Caroline Overington, over in the Oz, claims that the story is months old in Canberra and surfaced as a result of a disgruntled ex NY post employee claiming that Col Allan was a constant habitue of “Scores.”
She also observes that the Rudd angle has lacked the “inappropriate conduct/asked to leave” line until
Milne’s piece surfaced today.
So, once again, the “story” here is why Milne chucked the hitherto absent spicy hook in and ran the piece in the Tele at this point.
I mean, assuming he was complicit in any naught bits…
Not sure what the “intimidating” comment was referring to in relation to the club, but I wouldn’t mind betting it had to do with the pressure to buy drinks, by the bottle, hugely marked up, I am talking $300 a bottle here US prices, for the pleasure of staying even just a very short time in such a gentleman’s club. Why people fall for it I don’t know. It ain’t that sexy from what I have heard, even for blokes, but then is it the transgression that is the thing really for these sexual ingenues, now ain’t it.
And if you are pissed and intimidated by aggressive waiters trying to sell you outrageously priced drinks, or move you on, then you can’t really absorb the entertainment, now can you.
It would be very strange to work in such a place, but I imagine that the women who do so feel pretty distanced from those who observe them, distracted as the latter are by meeting exhaustion, their competitive, noisy companions, and unfamilarity of all with direct sensual pleasure.
I was just about to post a link to Overington:
http://blogs.theaustralian.news.com.au/coverington/index.php/theaustralian/comments/rudds_awkward_poll_dance
I think Milne should be persona non grata for every ALP MP and staffer from now on. Wallow in the muck without any tips, leaks, quotes, or help from Labor.