A senior Liberal operative within the Kroger faction has launched a blistering attack on Party President Dr David Kemp over his handling of Blog-Gate, the internal Liberal crisis triggered by the OC's revelations that two party staffers were sacked for writing a blog critical of the current party leader Ted Baillieu.
The operative said that his very clear memory of Dr Kemp's time as party state director was that he was also involved in the factional activities apparently so frowned upon by many Liberal party members and recently denounced by Baillieu.
FACTIONS NOT OFFICIALLY ACKNOWLEDGED BUT LARGE AND IN CHARGE
In the strange culture of the modern Liberal party, it is run by factions, there are faction fights that are openly discussed in newspapers and on this blog of freedom. Yet the party membership is said to be in denial about this. One of the gravest allegations one can make of another in the Liberal party apparently is that you used your Liberal party office to secure advantage for your faction.
Labor hack readers will have to suspend their disbelief that this is such a big deal, and the extent of it certainly surprises the OC, but being involved in a faction is seen by many rank and file Libs as a very dirty thing indeed or at the least a guilty pleasure.
For that reason, factional How To Vote tickets for State Council are usually only hand-written, furtively distributed to delegates like a copy of Playboy in a schoolyard and returned to the secret-faction-man when the conference delegate has finished with it and cast their vote. ALP equivalents are printed on reams of paper, usually on the brightest taxpayer funded Optix paper with the faction name in 72 point on top of it to remove any doubt.
Accordingly to accuse a Liberal state director or high party official of abusing their power to feather their own factional or personal nest is a very grave allegation in Liberal circles. In the ALP, it's considered a sign of mental illness, incompetence and failure if you don't use your elected position to advance your own faction's position.
POWER-SHARING MIGHT WORK
It is this bizarre thought process that leads there to be no power-sharing or proportional elections in Liberal party decision-making bodies. To a large extent, it's winner take all. In the ALP by contrast, every key decision making body is elected using proportional representation. In each state branch, almost without exception they have an Assistant Secretary from the second biggest faction and the State Secretary is from the biggest. It doesn't make the appointments any less meritorious, they often have good quality people in these roles.
The consequence of power sharing is it builds a sense of ownership. Give folk a sense they own nothing, will get constantly thrashed, have nothing to lose and they'll act in all sorts of destructive ways. Ted Baillieu confronted that head-on when asked to respond to a disgusting anti-semitic email sent by one of his supporters at 104 Exhibition Street.
KEMP'S NOW HUSHED UP FACTIONAL PAST WILL RESURFACE
One informant pointed out that in the late 1980s, while it is true that emails were not circulated, it was often the case that minutes and notes were taken at important meetings, including in the Liberal party of the day, private factional gatherings.
The operative claimed "there is a lot of dredging going on (through old files)" to ensure that if Kemp does initiate or tolerate expulsion in these clearly unfair circumstances then he "will pay a very high price indeed in terms of his reputation."
"If he tries to mess with the faction, the faction will mess with him," the operative explained. "Tell them in the blog 'We will get you Kemp.' He really should watch his back."
Older members of their group point to the messy and ugly circumstances of his preselection for Goldstein where Kemp brutally deposed Liberal wet Ian McPhee, apparently winning by just three votes in what was considered an important exercise in getting ready to govern by the Kroger/Costello faction. The Liberal wets who evolved into the Baillieu faction believed it to be an indulgent atrocity that prematurely ended the career of a very liberal Liberal who ought to have been protected.
Specifically, Kemp is accused of the same conduct by his own factional colleagues that Baillieu identified as so very scandalous in the first days of the Blog-Gate crisis. They say Dr Kemp used his position as a state director in an overtly factional way and that there is ample documentary evidence with minutes and copious notes taken at private gatherings which noted his participation in discussions about who was getting what in factional carve-ups including his own preselection and in factional ticketing and organisation.
"He was in it up to his neck, of course he was. Did he abuse his position to pursue a factional position? Ask Ian McPhee about it."
KEMP IS BANGING HEADS TOGETHER AND THEY ARE READY TO RESPOND WITH A LIVERPOOL KISS
Kemp has displeased factional operatives on both sides since becoming president by what one referred to as a "pious and sanctimonious" mindset that seems to forget his past and pretend he lived another political life to the head-kicking and scalp-taking that actually got him into Parliament all those years ago.
"Party members will be fascinated to see in documentary form exactly how dirty Kemp's hands are from a very long time ago."
"There are long memories and plenty of dusty files. If he pursues expulsions, he will inevitably become a target and few will accept his sanctimony and hypocrisy then," an angry observer remarked earlier today. "There are notes, minutes and memos with his name all over them, he cannot pretend to be a clean-skin."
When the OC asked one angry patriot whether Kemp was still in a Kroger faction, he said "Yes, up to a point. He's now running his own game. He has run off on his own tangent."
Another said "He is a pontificating weasel, if he persists with this expulsion shite, he will regret it."
Many party operatives talking with the OC have reached the view that Kemp will back down and that Baillieu will have to do so too.
CHANGE OR MORE OF THE SAME? RED TED HAS TO GO
In another stunning development, word came through throughout the afternoon of a number of MP's "talking tickets" about the possibility of assembling a ticket that would be able to defeat Baillieu. Mulder is now assumed to be the leadership candidate but it is widely understood that he will decline to be involved in any of what could be referred to as the "wet work."
But Mulder has done his bit, insiders say. The country gent's once rough around the edges grooming has exponentially improved in the past six months, in clear anticipation that a big opportunity would be presenting itself sometime soon. Liberals in Spring Street have noticed Mulder's hair cut more regularly, quite a few new suits, a general improving in the wardrobe and him presenting a little more polished than previously.
Many of the Toorak Toff brigade around Terry Mulder have apparently looked down their nose at the self-made Mulder who left school at fourteen and built a life from adversity with courage. The contrast with silver spoon Baillieu couldn't be any greater.
It's just their background either. One MP told the OC "Where Baillieu is paranoid; Mulder is relaxed but determined. Where Baillieu bullies and rants; Mulder listens and acts. Change is coming, Andrew."
Increasingly in the media and among the MP's dozing their way through parliamentary committees at the moment, there is a rapidly growing expectation that Baillieu cannot long endure. He has started a fight that many say cannot be resolved other than by his departure.
One patriot likened Baillieu to a Palestinian terrorist who has messed with the might of the Kroger Israeli Defence Forces. "They might get a few thrill kills but we'll win the war, he's outmatched by a superior and smarter force."
THE GRASSROOTS ARE GLOWING OC GREEN WITH RAGE ABOUT RED TED'S SINISTER EMAIL FROLICS
While it's true many party members don't like factions, they are also unambiguously and nearly unanimously outraged by Baillieu's prosecution of this matter.
They see the leaking of private emails to the nations' most left-wing newspaper as little more than disgusting. Amazing to see this morning that Paul Austin at The Age now reporting: "Baillieu leadership under fire". Ya think, Comrade Paul?
They see talk of expulsion as over the top, petty, indulgent, counter-productive, vindictive and spiteful.
They are comfortable that there will be at least 30% on the Policy Assembly willing to stand up and block expulsions, even if it means a public repudiation of Ted Baillieu's leadership and his complete humiliation if he proved himself incapable of bumping off a bunch of twenty somethings after promising the public he'd excise this imaginary "cell" that's somehow out to get him.
Even some Baillieu faction members have shared with the OC their grave concern about the ugly precedent set. More than one blames the unsubtle head-kicker and one-time umbrella importer Michael Kapel for the mad decision to leak emails in an attempt to smear the reputations of their targets.
It worked to a point. Some of the comments published in The Age, especially about public housing tenants, were unfortunate, even rather sad.
But they were private discussions. Who amongst us hasn't said stupid things in private? I'd love a CD of mine, it'd be a chart-topper.
Maybe Ted Baillieu while mid-hissy fit in 104 Exhibition Street has also said some things he could regret in private discussions and temper tantrums. Imagine if someone had taped such an exchange, like one of his screaming matches with former party president Russell Hannan before the chap quit, exhausted by Red Ted's paranoia, manic determination to get his own way and control freak micro-managing.
Baillieu's leaking of the emails is unquestionably a more problematic offence than the authoring of a blog whose observations seemed overwhelmingly accurate, if at times harsh because of the cloak of anonymity. It takes a rare blog indeed to call Fran Bailey a "fat b*tch" without the benefit of being anonymous. Her weight, gender and prickliness are not really an issue compared the unpleasant woman's war-crimes against staff from what the OC hears.
In addition to the outrage about the poor form Ted has already demonstrated, there is much talk about where the internal party investigation will head next.
MP's CAUGHT PLAYING FACTIONAL POLITICS BY EMAIL // WILL IT BE COVERED UP? OR RELEASED TO PAUL AUSTIN?
A number of sources tell the OC that this investigation could easily show that party officials - using Liberal party email and members of parliament using their parliamentary email - actively working on factional business, including devising and distributing factional tickets and other supposedly high crimes and misdemeanours.
We've already provided a hit-list of Baillieu targets but it's clear that Tony Barry, Julian Sheezel, Helen Kroger, Scott Ryan and Jason Aldworth have all plenty to be worried about. They might not be expelled, if Kemp is to be taken at his word.
But they could have their prestige among the party membership considerably reduced if their private correspondence (or enough of it that had been sent to the work email of John Osborn or Simon Morgan) discussing factional matters is released by Ted Baillieu or his staff including Michael Kapel, party animal Paul Price and enforcer Simon Troeth.
So all the Kroger faction folks are naturally very worried about being witch-hunted. But perhaps not now half as worried as Red Ted Baillieu has reason to be.
He's a goner. We already saw Seven's Iron Chef Brendan Donohue ask the traditional question of leadership challengers last night, where Terry Mulder expressed his full support for Ted Baillieu, as you do. It's just the beginning. This snow flake landed high in the mountains that will eventually turn into an avalanche on Red Ted's head.
Like Kemp, he should figuratively be very alarmed about seeing any red dots of the kind that come from long-distance laser rifle sights. Baillieu has already endured one head-shot from a grassy knoll on the Neil Mitchell show. If he persists with the madness of expelling people for their privately held views, he'd better get used to it.
The Kroger IDF is a well-trained and militant force that hasn't lost a battle for quite some time, Liberal insiders say. And like the IDF that defends an oasis of freedom surrounded by the deserts of dictatorship and evil, the Kroger forces are now fighting for their very survival. Betting against them seems remarkably risky.
Game on.
UPDATE:
■ John Ferguson at the Hun has gone from curiously supporting the jihad to now reporting on the growing fury of "senior Liberal figures" about Baillieu's handling of this crisis. Note the quote referring to jihads. I think the OC's colourful language might be infiltrating the minds of our readers.
■ Paul Austin at The Age as above has gone from publishing private emails of people on Red Ted's Enemies List to now reporting concerns this "was a gross breach of privacy". That's one way of putting it. Indeed reading his yarn now seems "ominously" similar to the OC's rants of the past few days. Baillieu leadership under fire, indeed. Perhaps Paul Austin's leadership of The Age's state political writers ought be under fire too.
■ Meanwhile the more sensible Rick Wallace at The Australian who broke news yesterday of the presumably unprecedented situation of 104 Exhibition Street conducting an investigation into their own Leader's office for leaking today reports that the clowns in Red Ted's circus are very quickly back-pedalling on their unicycles away from the mad hysteria of expelling anyone opposed to him:
Mr Baillieu yesterday dropped all talk of purges, traitors and cells - which had prompted MPs to liken him to Stalin - saying in more muted terms that "we are going to get to the bottom of this and stamp it out". Quizzed about the investigation into suggestions his office leaked the emails, he said he would not provide "a running commentary on this".
A senior Liberal source predicted the bungled handling of the crisis would soon see Mr Baillieu toppled as leader.
"All hell is going to break loose over the next few weeks. This bloke is isolated - he's publicly blown up the party for the sake of a website that no one read. The business community is in meltdown and the donations will dry up," the source said.
A website that had an audience of one: Red Ted. If he goes down, as appears inevitable now, it will have achieved an objective many patriots have been fondly dreaming of for a long time.
In now Dead Ted's misconduct since Sunday we see:
1) why the Ted Baillieu Must Go website was justified and was mostly correct,
2) just how astonishingly successful it turned out to be in destabilising him mainly because of his own over-reaction and
3) that this chap who is so keen to appear born-to-rule just never had it in him.
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