Tuesday, 1 July 2008
SPITE FIGHT: Jamie Briggs And Tony Barry Slagged Freely // Must Be Preselection O'Clock
Patriots report that Senator Ronaldson staffer and powerbroker Tony Barry has a strong personal dislike for Mayo Liberal preselection candidate Jamie Briggs.
Briggs' supporters have strongly defended their man from recent attacks saying those criticising his political judgment needed to have a good hard look at themselves.
"Briggs was trusted with two of the government's most sensitive areas when in the PM's office," a well placed source recalled.
"For Tony Barry to compare himself favourably with Briggs is a sick joke, as Kemp made clear people like him are a cancer that must be cut out" the source claimed.
By comparison, other Liberal insiders lavish praise on the former Prime Ministerial staffer:
"Briggs is a bright shining beacon of talent in a darkened Liberal world. He has strong views, doesn't suffer fools, is a family man and unlike many people around the place actually has strong values."
They say that it was Briggs that personally took charge of persuading the Prime Minister that a fairness test for Workchoices would be necessary and he played a leading role in forcing the bureaucracy to come up with one.
They point to the muted criticism coming from Telstra during the election as evidence of Briggs' political acumen and persuasive charms.
Game on.
THE FEENEY PHOENIX: Was Put To The Sword, Is Now Large And In Charge
David Feeney has been called all sorts of good and bad names in his wild ride in politics over nearly twenty years.
Mike Rann once dubbed him the heroic General Eisenhower of Rann's re-election campaign after his famous role as the ALP's campaign director in South Australia. His campaign over there was brutal and brilliant and made folks like Greg Sword who'd been responsible for removing him from the same role in Victoria look particularly vindictive, stupid, vicious and possibly evil (an exorcism has not yet been performed on Comrade Sword so no-one is quite sure).
It's been a long, twilight struggle for him but now there's a new name which we suspect he'll have for a very long time: Senator.
Game on.
THE PRICE OF FAME: Gloria Jean's Vouchers For All // The OC In Newsprint Once Again
Human headline Les Twentyman and human headline aspirant The OC got a good run in the Herald Sun and The Australian respectively today.
So blasé am I about my many mentions in the press these days that in the manner of Hollywood stars and Les Twentyman, I barely pay attention before luncheon, waiting for my agent to call to tell me. Am still waiting...
Anyways, the Herald Sun honey-patriot Geraldine Mitchell, pictured right, gave Les a lovely run and was even kind enough - as arranged - to leave me out of a story which makes false claims about the OC.
It's journalists like Mitchell, willing to bravely embrace traditional foes of News Limited like Les Twentyman bankrolled as he was by militant union thugs, who prove that it's a profession for those with an open mind and open heart, not for campaigners and barrackers who egg individual candidates on.
An example of such cheerleading could be seen in one strange piece of work by Michael Davis. Interesting to note that article contains a suspiciously unspecific attack on western suburbs Police response times. He claimed VicPol's failure to respond caused kids to be "hiding in cupboards for more than an hour, fearing for their lives." We understand this massively exaggerates the incident Twentyman refers to. There's a surprise.
Many believe that Mitchell has positioned herself very well for promotion and that she is moving up the greasy pole particularly quickly. Good to hear.
SUCH A LOVELY CONTRAST TO PHONEY LEONIE
If only The Age was so compliant when they "stalked" me, published multiple photos of my former home (and address too to assist wrongdoers) and persistently "harassed" me by unleashing the demon-dialling demon sub-human half-woman half-wild pig Leonie Wood upon my sorry butt.
We do thank the much more adorable Geraldine for her discretion and well known sense of fairness and proportion. Gloria Jean's voucher in the mail.
In the broadsheet faction of News Limited, The Australian, we couldn't escape Les's lash but I feel we were well represented:
He also flagged plans to seek an intervention order against political blogger Andrew Landeryou, who published a photo of Mr Twentyman's house.
"Photographing my house and inside my house ... it's just been terrible," he said.
But Mr Landeryou accused Mr Twentyman of stifling free speech and said he published the picture on his blog, The Other Cheek, to show that there was "an enormous self-aggrandising oil painting of a political candidate who was pretending to be a humble, Aussie battler" in the house. (OC: Is it wrong to laugh at your own material, I humbly ask myself)
"It's quite amazing how this powerful, celebrity property millionaire has positioned himself to be the victim here," he wrote on his blog yesterday.
In another nice coup, The Australian's Wallace revealed the ETU would finance yet another failed candidacy of Twentyman, who is so precious and delicate that he is considering releasing his own line of delicate fine china to be marketed throughout the inner-west branded Soft Coq. Available at an inner-urban lefty boutique de maison near you.
Union bullyist Dean Mighell could have been a contender, instead he's been reduced to funded three-time loser egomaniacs. It's enough to have a patriot reaching for those old calendar pics. Nah, we'll let it go. Mighell might be much smarter than he appears.
Game on.
OLDIES FIGHT BACK: Michelle Grattan Takes To ALP Boss With Her Zimmer Frame Aided By Union Leader With Many Members In Nursing Home Industry
Septuagenarian Michelle Grattan has let rip today at the Victorian ALP state secretary Stephen Newnham, aided by one of our favourite union bosses Health Services Union secretary patriot Jeff Jackson.
WHO'S IN CHARGE?
With Grattan being much like a female version of the all-knowing yet crazy Professor in Back to the Future, it really is Back to the Future time with the Labor Right set to tear itself a new one over the age-old question that my pup Ronnie and I are yet to resolve in my household: "Who's in charge?"
The pampered pooch thinks he is. He barks when he wants to go for a walk. The alpha male super-pup drags me along if he doesn't think I'm keeping up the pace. Of course, I control the food, giving me what I consider to be a strategic advantage of some significance. But I doubt he's convinced.
These same questions occur within any political grouping all the time. And they're easy to exaggerate. (That's our specialty of course)
Certainly Jackson, a figure so colourful that he really should be put on canvas, is trying to up the ante by speaking on the record about Newnham, making almost absurdly unfair criticisms about his performance.
Of course that's not really Jackson's gripe.
MULTI-FRACTIONAL ARM-WRESTLE FOR CONTROL OF HEAD OFFICE
With the exception of the SL's Andrew Giles who is keen to reposition his part of his own faction as campaign experts, there is not a lot of criticism of ALP Head Office these days from what I can detect. Certainly not after what most hail as a brilliant campaign in Kororoit which made ultra-leftist candidate Les Twentyman explain his very controversial views, almost certainly costing him the seat.
It's really that the state secretary is an ally of Jackson's current nemeses Bill Shorten and Steve Conroy. I say current because they all seem reasonably matey to me whenever I've seen them about. They're all good people if you ask me. And I'm not sure if it's easy to convey puzzlement in black and white, but the OC is yet to figure out what they all actually disagree about.
Other than "Who's in charge" of course.
And just like Ronnie and me, I'm not sure that will ever be resolved.
Certainly not while many of the major players in this drama, Steve Conroy, Robin Scott, Theo Theophanous, Bill Shorten et al are overseas.
Game on.
WITH FRIENDS LIKE HIM THE PM DIDN'T NEED ENEMIES: Former Colleagues Question Political Acumen of Former Howard Staffer And Mayo Preselection Candidate Jamie Briggs
Former Howard Government staffers tell the OC that there are big question marks over Mayo Liberal preselection aspirant Jamie Briggs.
"Politically naive, arrogant and stupid," was one tough summary from one of his former colleagues this morning. "Plays power games constantly" was another.
Briggs' personal style and competence has been questioned with one well-informed patriot reporting that a majority of then ministerial staff and those who had to work with him in PMO.
They say as Howard's industrial relations adviser Briggs exhibited poor judgment, alienated everyone while being obsequious to senior people including the then PM and Alexander Downer.
Flattery got him everywhere they say. "He's nauseating, he turns on his country boy Mildura charm only to those above him. Those ranking below are treated like the sh*t on his shoe" one told the OC.
NO POLITICAL JUDGMENT
But his job performance is the biggest issue as he played such a large role in mismanaging the government's response to its most controversial policy, Workchoices.
Insiders say Briggs blocked decisions just for the sake of it, to prove how big and powerful he was.
They say he his political smarts were non-existent.
In one instance cited by an insider who thinks Briggs is a political doof, Briggs demanded statistics from the Office of Employment Advocate about the percentage of people who were "worse off" under Workchoices.
Up until then, the OEA had only been able to refer to vague estimates, which were obviously less damaging than precise statistics generated because of Briggs' demand for a sample.
Labor's Julia Gillard still uses those stats to this day making Jamie Briggs a gift that keeps on giving for the ALP, according to Liberal insiders.
Game on.
RAGE OVER AGE: Spencer Street Kororoit Interpretation Dissed By Election Experts
Monash U academic Dr Nick Economou and WIlliam Bowe of Pollbludger have expressed concern over their weird front-page assertion yesterday that there was a monster swing against Labor's Marlene Kairouz.
On Pollbludger, the election analyst Bowe wrote:
I rather feel that this shows a sense of proportion which is lacking at The Age, whose website puts Kororoit at centre stage with a headline reading “Big rebuff for Brumby”. This heads a story which claims Labor has suffered a 16.5 per cent per swing, a figure obtained by comparing the apple of 2006’s Labor-versus-Liberal result with the orange of Saturday’s Labor-versus-Twentyman result. A meaningful two-party swing cannot be readily obtained because we don’t know how Twentyman and the minor candidates’ preferences went, but an educated guess points to a Labor/Liberal split of around 70/30 and a no-big-deal swing of 5 or 6 per cent. There is no reason to be surprised that a candidate of Twentyman’s reputation and celebrity should be able to achieve 20 per cent of the vote, or that he should do so primarily at Labor’s expense given his ideological orientation.
In The Age's letters section today, Dr Nick Economou said:
In the interests of fairness, I think it is important to draw attention to the mitigating circumstances surrounding the claim made by your newspaper that the Kororoit byelection represented a 16.5% two-party swing against the state Labor Government ("Litmus test a big rebuff for Brumby", The Age, 30/6). While this was technically true, it must be remembered that this swing was the result of the vagaries of the two-party count that had the independent Les Twentyman as the second-preferred candidate. Mr Twentyman's achievement was assisted, first, by the advantage he obtained from being on top of the ballot and, second, from preferences directed towards him by the Liberal candidate. Had the Liberal candidate, Jenny Matic, polled slightly better (say, for instance, she had been top of the ballot rather than Twentyman) and ended up being the second-placed candidate, the two-party result would have been very different. The Labor candidate would have then received preferences from Twentyman, the independent Tania Walters (and probably a fair share of the Greens as well). This would have resulted in a two-party Labor vote closer to 75% — virtually no change from the general election. This outcome would, of course, serve to mitigate some of the claims made by your commentators on the significance of the Kororoit outcome.
Dr Nicholas Economou, Blackburn
Game on.
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