from Crikey …..

Revelations that Peter Costello shot his mouth off over dinner with three senior Canberra journalists in 2005 should probably be filed - along with the small legion of other Costello indiscretions - under P, somewhere between petulance, Peter Principle and pique. None of these continually reported digs amount to much more than verbal pouts, and none look likely to trouble Costello's stubbornly persistent nemesis, the PM.

But Costello's reported words are important this time for other reasons, not because of what the Treasurer said, but because of the decision the journalists involved made not to report it. Here is proof positive that journalists, when pushed by the authority figures whose affection and fellowship they crave, are happy to put two things to one side: first, their duty of care to their reading public and the trust given to our democracy's fourth estate and second, their sense of professional competitiveness. What a supine, self-serving, clubbable lot.

As for you Treasurer, there are two days remaining in what will in all probability be the last Parliamentary sitting before the election. Two days left to turn your maddening, itching ambition to some sort of concrete purpose. Two days left to challenge. If, that is, you are man enough.

and from Christian Kerr …..

Costello speaks: an ethics lesson from a liar

A low key Peter Costello fronted a doorstop outside the Ministerial Entrance at 8:40 this morning with a very important message: you can’t trust journalists. (Click here to listen to the audio.)

Those of us in the handful of hacks who were around at that time – and there were some senior people there, like Michelle Grattan, Paul Bongiorno, Fran Kelly and David Speers – got an ethics lessons from a liar.

Twice yesterday – in the morning, on Channel 9, and later in the day on Sky – the Treasurer was asked if he’d said of the Prime Minister and the government: "He can't win; I can. We can, but he can't."

Twice he denied it – but he was in trouble once he’d done it on Sky, because the interviewer countered with: "Because one of those who was there present has told me today there's no question you did and there were others present."

At the doorstop today he denied a charge that has not been made – "I have never urged supporters of mine to carp against the prime minister nor have I ever urged supporters of mine to do anything which would undermine the Liberal Party" – and then tried to turn the matter into an ethical issue.

Costello sought to cast doubt over the story as a whole by beginning with a refutation of the reported date of the dinner where he made his remarks – that it was in June, not March 2005.

He then raised the ethics angle: "In the course of this discussion, which, by the way, was an off the record discussion, I think that point ought to be made, because I think that’s an important point of journalistic ethics, there was a long discussion of politics..."

And he played coy over what’s attributable and what’s not. "Well I don’t know all of these rules," he began. "According to me..."

"Mr Costello, of course you do," Michelle Grattan slapped him down.

Still, he’s got away with it to some extent. There’s been serious discussions in the corridors of the Gallery today over the ethical dimension of the matter.

Perhaps the starkest thing to come out of this all is the deference to power shown by those in the Canberra Club.

In 2005, it was fine to defer to Costello’s morning after regrets at big noting himself the night before and not reporting the remarks then.

Costello’s power in 2007 is shakier – so the comments are now out.

From all of this, we should note one thing; that basic maxim all good spin doctors tell their masters: there is no such thing as off the record.

Everything you say gets noted and affects perceptions, one way or the other.

Sometimes more spectacularly than others.

Remember that and you won’t need ethics lessons from a liar.

and Luke McKenna writes …..

Snapshot of a PM-(still)-in-waiting

Today’s Costello leadership revelation should come as no surprise. Over the past three years we have gradually seen the opinions of the prime minister-(still)-in-waiting seep through the cracks in his public loyalty to the PM.

This artificial loyalty -- and subsequent dismal failure to make a public stand for the leadership -- is precisely his problem. As The Age’s Michelle Grattan describes the situation today: “[Costello] was not willing to shoot [Howard] in the front -- mostly because he knew he did not have the ammunition in the form of party room numbers. Costello was disloyal but unable to be disloyal enough.”

In light of today’s developments, we have compiled some moments in time of Costello’s disloyalties – small individually, but combining to form quite a colourful picture of a weak, frustrated, wannabe PM.

5 March, 2005: Costello's tongue loosens at a private dinner with three reporters. ABC reporter Michael Brissenden, present at that dinner, now says that Costello set a deadline of April 2006 for Howard to go. If the deadline was not met, Costello allegedly planned to “carp” the PM from the backbench because he did not believe Howard could beat Beazley in the 2007 election. He purportedly commented: "He can't win; I can. We can, but he can't.” The comments came just days after reports of the so-called "Athens Declaration" which saw Howard declare he wanted to run for the 2007 election, angering Costello.

July, 2006: A supposed 1994 Costello/Howard leadership deal was made public by former defence minister Ian McLachlan. Costello holds a special press conference on 10 July. Costello: "He told me that he intended to do 1½ terms as prime minister and then would hand over ... I did not seek that undertaking, he volunteered and I took him at his word. Obviously that did not happen." Costello maintains that he did not push McLachlan to make details of the meeting public, but noted: "His account is entirely accurate. That was precisely what happened, they are the full facts of what happened”. Costello also noted, "my parents always told me if you've done nothing wrong, you've got nothing to fear by telling the truth."

July, 2006: Costello speaks, on the record, to Peter van Onselen and Wayne Errington, authors of John Winston Howard: The Biography. He states: "The Howard treasurership was not a success in terms of interest rates and inflation ... He had not been a great reformer."

October, 2006: Costello, in a second interview with Howard's biographers, expresses concerns about the “sustainability” of the PM’s election spending: "I have to foot the bill and that worries me. And then I start thinking about not just footing the bill today but if we keep building in all these things, footing the bill in five, and 10 and 15 years and you know I do worry about the sustainability of all these things." On the topic of Howard reneging on his 1994 deal: "What do you expect me to do? I don't cry myself to sleep … The dogs bark but the caravan moves on."

and, for cozzie & johnnee from Nicolson we have Makeover