In possibly the most astonishing development of the bizarre Liberal Blog-gate crisis, we are now hearing that state Leader Red Ted Baillieu is retreating fast with white flag fluttering from his Soviet made jeep driven by his Comrade Lieutenant Michael Kapel in the direction of General Petro Georgiou's bunker/head-quarters in Leningrad.
The investigation by Tony Nutt will essentially find no one guilty of anything other than recommending that staff be counselled not to use inappropriate language by email. His probe found no evidence whatever of an organised "cell of traitors" as Baillieu put it initially.
ORAL FIXATION
Nutt's investigation will not be able to be made public or be leaked by reason of the fact that he is understood to be only planning on presenting it to Admin Committee and the Leader in person and verbally. Liberal insiders say there will not be a written report of any kind in this matter because of the prospect of it leaking to the OC or other outlets.
A Liberal source told the OC as we reported last week that Tony Nutt was an "expert in making problems disappear" and it seems that is right if Nutt refuses to commit his investigation to paper. It's a shrewd move.
It is certainly a far cry from Baillieu's public assurances that the investigation would be made public.
Nutt's report is expected to be presented at the next Admin Committee which is due early June but could be done prior if they have an emergency meeting.
RED TED'S BRATTISH FURY EXPLAINED
Baillieu is understood to have been persuaded to pour cold water on the hot flames he fanned with his incendiary rhetoric when the crisis first came to light.
Many had assumed it was prompted by anger. But that clearly wasn't the case as he'd known about the identities of those involved in the blog and their termination from Liberal secretariat at least a month prior.
So why was Ted so narked?
It's simple.
He was humiliated by the result of a State Council where after promising much his people pulled 1 out of 20 in the elections for Admin Committee.
His candidates were certainly expected to do better, with them being undermined by their star candidate's curious last-minute withdrawal from the race.
His rage was a deep and seething one and he figured because of the anti Ted blog he'd be in a strong position to even up with those who had smited him.
Despite his imminent surrender, some of Baillieu's bitter and twistedness is reflected in his latest leak to Paul Austin today of a letter from badboi Andrew Olexander whose drug-fuelled binges, car crashes and electoral allowance rorting hardly makes him the kind of person Red Ted should want advocating his cause.
Beggars can't be choosers we suppose.
JELLYBACK JULIAN
Many are saying that the biggest loser from this whole debacle has been Julian Sheezel, the former state director and one-time presumptive Liberal successor in Higgins.
His critics within the Kroger camp say that his inability to manage an office means that he's not ministerial material. They say if he's not ministerial material then he ought not be the candidate for Higgins. They also say he failed a major test of character by succumbing to Old Man Winter David Kemp and Red Ted's demands to hand over private staff emails to Ted.
Sheezel's defenders deny this, saying he couldn't manage what he didn't know about, had no choice about the email hand-over and reject the attacks on him as "Tony Barry obfuscation."
Julian's opponents say he has offended the faction that represents 75-80% of the party's decision-making power and that he can never recover his reputation after being seen as a "factional rat" who repeatedly dropped his own into acid vats at the first sign of trouble. "Jellyback Julian" is one insult we hear regularly.
Game on.
since failed candidate 
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