from Crikey .....

Finally, we have John Howard's own version of why he remained Liberal leader through to the 2007 election -- and then went down, ignominiously and unnecessarily, with the ship.

And a tacky version it is, confirming in his own calibrated words how selfishness, hubris and the wishes of his wife (who elected her again?) prevented an orderly transfer of leadership to Peter Costello, and created the conditions for a humiliating defeat for the political party whose fortunes Howard was supposed to protect.

"I had a plan to retire as prime minister and if Peter Costello had been a better listener, he would have succeeded me," begins The Australian's extract on leadership from Lazarus Rising.

And it's downhill all the way after that. After the 2004 election, he admits that:

"If I stayed and fought yet another election, and were successful, that would take me to 70 before I might properly step down. I thought that would be staying too long and tempting fate... My wife Janette and I kicked the issue around, and I concluded that it would be in the party's best interests, all things being equal, if I retired before the 2007 election, giving my successor, who I assumed would be Costello, plenty of time to establish himself."

But as we know, Howard did nothing of the sort, acting at every turn against "the party's best interests" and only in his own interests because he didn't like Costello's style:

"In electing to approach the leadership as he did, Costello completely misread both my temperament and my personality. Having worked closely with me for a decade it surprised me that he imagined I would succumb to the sort of rank amateur pressure placed on me through media briefings and the like... To have gone in the wake of the Milne story about the December 1994 meeting would have had history recording that I had been forced out by the revelation of a broken deal, no matter how untrue that might have been. I was never going to allow that to happen."

And finally, in September 2007:

"...I had to face the reality that the government was headed for defeat and that part of the outcome would be my losing Bennelong... I then said to Downer: 'Do you think it would help if I went? Could Costello do better than I could? Perhaps a new leader would upset Rudd and turn things around?' ...I told Downer that I would not leave in circumstances of cowardly flight. In no way would I countenance the appearance of going because I was afraid of defeat."

You may or may not agree with Howard's ideas or policies. But when it comes to selfishness and the disregard of the interests of his own party, Howard has no equal in Australian politics.