"Some people find this hard to imagine, but I can feel for both Mr and Mrs Howard" … Maxine McKew

...

"'Not happy, John' did not begin to sum up my views of the neglect of the Howard government. It was negative. It was also a protest campaign," she says.

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Gus: wrong... "Not Happy John" was more than a protest campaign... It was the only way to expose the trickery and the porkies emanating from Johnnee's government — as the media at large was happy to be conned, unhappy to be conned but conned anyway, or happy to support the shenanigans... These were numerous — appearing as non-core policies on Medicare, to little stupid wars just to support the lust of an American president for oil... Sure one can feel sorry for Mr and Mrs Howard 'who may drink tea at four o'clock every afternoon' (I made that up but that's the way they appear)... But one can also feel sorry for the million Iraqi who have lost their lives and the 2.5 millions who have been displaced, in a war in which Australia's participation was an important symbol for the US imperialism of the Bushit President, as well as a profitable bit of brown nosing in a turgid war. In regard to Saddam, there were much better options than to go to war... But war was the only solution that provided appropriation of the loot for the US. And Bush, Howard and Blair lied about the WMDs... We knew that then, we still know now.

I hate war.

Johnnee took Australia to a stupid war on a whim and a lie. Gus Leonisky "hated" Johnnee for this alone...

By the way, your "positive" campaign was the only way to go, but please do not bring the "Not Happy John" crowd as a counterpoint. That crowd had an important voice and for a few years may have been the only strong voice to be heard as the media went into sleeping mode, in which slick porkies had to be presented as news...

And the Labor Party only won because the "Liberal" ... er... sorry the CON-servative party of Johnnee went cockily too far with its reforms of the employment relationships in our society which he had turned into an "economy"... A bad economy at that, in which a greater burden of debt was transferred on people, and in which the trade deficit is diving towards the centre of the earth...

We started the "Rudd for rudder" campaign here on this site a few years ago... In order to promote better policies and a better understanding of the planet... A long way to go but at least it appears we've stopped the rot.

Congratulation Maxine. 

John Valder, a former president of the Liberal party, a full-blown "Howard-hater" writes a letter in the Sydney Morning Herald:

Sorry, Maxine, but Bennelong could have been Labor's in 2004

December 18, 2007

At the risk of committing blasphemy, heresy, or even treason, can I be a plain old party pooper and have the temerity to qualify Maxine McKew's win in Bennelong?

In 2004, when I was preparing the "Not happy, John" campaign, the legendary ALP powerbroker John Faulkner told me in no uncertain terms that it would be a waste of Labor's time, money and effort to bother supporting its candidate, Nicole Campbell. So, with virtually no resources, all poor Campbell could do was doorknock, which she did relentlessly and effectively. So effectively that she and Andrew Wilkie, the highly respected Greens candidate - both strongly backed by a vigorous "Not happy, John" campaign - made such inroads into John Howard's hitherto comfortable majority that for the first time he was forced to preferences.

For some time I have speculated that Howard would almost certainly have lost his seat in 2004 if the ALP had bothered to put even half the resources behind Campbell that it has just put behind McKew.

McKew had several other significant advantages that Campbell did not have in 2004. The electorate had been redistributed in favour of the Labor Party, and McKew, while standing against an incumbent prime minister, also found herself standing against the most unpopular Liberal candidate in Australia. After all, Howard had become the principal election issue. And the ranks of unashamed Howard-haters had swelled to tidal-wave proportions that carried away not only Howard but the whole country, taking the Liberal Party with it.

In my opinion McKew should have romped in. Sure, she did win, thankfully, but only after an agonisingly drawn-out count. My theory is that she would have won much more decisively, even spectacularly, if she had deigned to get her hands dirty with a much more robust campaign than the softly, softly model she chose to pursue. Sorry, Maxine.

Congratulations just the same. But it was lucky for you that Faulkner and the ALP misjudged the 2004 election so badly. Otherwise you probably wouldn't even have had the chance to stand against Howard, let alone defeat him. And Peter Costello might have been adding to three years as prime minister. If only.

John Valder (former federal president of the Liberal Party) Bayview

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Gus: is it possible that John Valder knows where the skeletons are buried and was he ever never a victim of John Howard's ways? One day he should start to tell and we should compare notes... like some of us having only a quarter of the puzzle pieces of a greater jigsaw picture of... whatever.

Former prime minister John Howard has accused his successor and his government of having no shame, and no theme. 

And, at a speech in Perth last night, he pointed to the recent Gippsland by-election as proof the public is starting to doubt the credibility of the Rudd government. 

"I think that two things have begun to implant themselves in the minds of the Australian people. The first is the absolutely dishonest and pathetic attempt by (Labor) that somehow they (inherited) an economic mess. They have no shame," Mr Howard said. 

Howard to Rudd: You Have No Shame

Workplace Relations Minister Bill Shorten says the Labor Party is strong enough to withstand any leadership speculation which might be fuelled by the release of a new book.

Former Labor MP and ABC journalist, Maxine McKew, is set to release Tales From The Political Trenches, which details the events surrounding the overthrow of former prime minister Kevin Rudd.

The memoir reportedly accuses Julia Gillard of manufacturing a leadership crisis in order to oust Mr Rudd.

It also suggest Ms Gillard had been plotting against Mr Rudd long before the leadership spill in 2010.

The book is due for release at the start of November - a time when political parties regularly assess their leadership.

But Mr Shorten told ABC1's Insiders that the Government is not concerned about Ms McKew's memoir.

"I haven't read the book, I wasn't contacted about it. I saw some references implying that our Prime Minister is overbearing in her manner. That isn't true. The Prime Minister I know is strong," he said.

"I mean even this week she's helped finish off the work which Kevin Rudd started. We've won the bid for the United Nations Security Council. Prime Minister Gillard is a very strong lady and people are realising that."

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-10-21/leadership-claims-in-new-political-memoir-27incorrect27/4325520?WT.svl=news0

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Call it whatever you will, but Rudd is a catholic and Maxine is a catholic who got politically challenged... As an "astute" media person, she should have been able to hold off a campaign from a former "tennis  player" who was a political novice with not much more to offer than a ratbaggery of ritewingnuttery...  Maxine, your book "sounds" like sour grapes on the boil... And like Lindsay Tanner, if the comments are correct, your bitterness is stronger than your understanding of what's what... It seems you are trying to undermine the government...

I know exactly what happened...