Amidst speculation about the Liberal Party leadership, Howard
tried one of his usual FEAR campaigns and warned everyone that
if he wasn't tory leader, it would probably be poor old Pete
Costello! 8^o
"I remain of the view that if I went under a bus, overwhelmingly the
most competent person to take my position would be Peter,"
Rip van Winston, pavement acrobat, ABC 7:30 program 19/7/2007
That seemed to do the trick and recent polls indicate that things
would ONLY GET WORSE for the tories with Costello as leader!
So they are stuck with Howard, and Howard is stuck with being a loser,
and getting kicked out, not retiring, Couldn't happen to a more
deserving arsehole! B^D .
"Costello no vote winner: poll"
- AAP 24/7/2007
"A last ditch effort to elevate Treasurer Peter Costello
to prime minister would not help the Government overcome
Labor's massive lead to win this year's election, a new
poll reveals.
Nearly one in three voters believes such a Liberal
leadership change would make them less likely to vote
for the coalition."
I agree, the only thing worse than a shifty mean and
untrustworthy Howard would be a No-Ticker Costello.
"All told, 60 per cent of those polled said it would make no
difference to their vote if Mr Costello replaced John Howard
as prime minister.
The Newspoll, conducted for a News Limited newspaper, also
found that just 8 per cent of voters polled said they would
be more likely to vote for a coalition government led by
Mr Costello.
The poll also revealed that Labor still holds a commanding
lead as the federal election looms.
On a two-party preferred basis, 55 per cent of voters polled
would vote Labor to the Coalition's 45 per cent."
So it doesn't really matter which tory loser is running
the Lieberal party, they are still gone!
"As the preferred prime minister, Mr Howard dropped two points,
to 40 per cent, while Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd remained
at 43 per cent.
A new biography of Mr Howard in which Mr Costello denigrates
the Prime Minister's record as treasurer in the early 1980s
has sparked speculation about the Liberal leadership."
What a hoot, Costello demonstrates what a gutless sidelines
whiner and saboteur he is, a spoiler.. and Howard is revealed
as an economic incompetent, a manipulator and a liar even to
his mates!
Before the release of the latest Newspoll, conducted at the weekend,
deputy Prime Minister Mark Vaile today said the Government had to be
guided by opinion polls to address issues of concern." - AAP
B^D Howard has always been poll driven
fasgnadh wrote:
>
> Costello, you lack the ticker to knife Caesar
> - The Age 22/7/2007
>
>
> "The Treasurer briefs against his leader but isn't
> tough enough to execute a coup"
>
> That pretty much sums it up.
>
> "THE Spanish call them cojones and it's becoming
> increasingly clear that Peter Costello doesn't have any."
>
> BWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHAHAAHAHHAHAAAA!
>
> Like Howard and friends!
>
> "For the simple fact is that, had Costello's nerve not failed
> him this time last year, he would now be prime minister.
>
> Costello, of course, has a list of reasons as long as his
> arm for why a leadership challenge has never been appropriate.
>
> The first is the rather compelling one that, had he challenged,
> he would have lost.
>
> Yes, the first time, this is probably true — but nothing a
> retreat to the back bench and the employment of some old-fashioned
> chicanery couldn't later fix.
>
> Costello's course of action after the first challenge
> should have been to make Howard look like he couldn't win
> the next election without him.
> Costello and his supporters should have used every
> opportunity to leak against Howard, undermine him and show
> everyone in the Liberal party room that he was prepared to
> bring down the government to get what he wanted.
>
> Had Costello done this, he would have faced the charge of disloyalty
> and of putting his own ambition before the Liberal Party.
> But, as subsequent events have shown, the judgement would have been
> right and have put them in a better position to win this election,
> because the electorate has stopped listening to Howard.
>
> Costello's second reason for not challenging Howard is that he didn't
> want to be seen as disloyal or be blamed for splitting the party.
> Then why did he choose politics as a profession? He should have stuck
> to the law. Leadership is not about being a nice guy, it's about
> backing your own judgements and convictions.
>
> I always find it amusing listening to Costello's supporters put
> down Malcolm Fraser as a useless nobody who doesn't belong in
> the Liberal Party.
>
> They seem to forget how Fraser got to be prime minister in the
> first place. First he tore down John Gorton, then he slowly
> strangled Billy Snedden.
>
> Once he became leader, Fraser set about destroying Gough Whitlam
> and soon enough he and wife Tammy were sleeping in the PM suite
> in the Lodge.
>
> Fraser's course of action may have earned him a certain enmity
> but he did manage to win the prize. Fraser was a tough, cunning,
> obdurate assassin who, as prime minister, had everyone in his party,
> including John Howard, absolutely terrified of him. He succeeded
> where Costello has failed.
>
> Costello invites the world to praise him for being a loyal deputy but
> the truth is that he has been anything but loyal.
>
> Every year since 2003, the Liberal Party has had to put out the fires
> ignited by Costello's public musings about how badly Howard treats him.
>
> Well, if he's that bad, Peter, stop whining and do something about it.
>
> The irony of Costello's pious claims about loyalty are that most of the
> party now wish he had found the pluck to pull out the knife and bring
> down Howard after all."
>
> But Costello is the Smirk, a sly backstabber but
> without the balls to face an opponent down.
>
> "Costello has never grasped what showing a bit of steel
> could do and the only reason he is not prime minister now
> is because he hasn't had the stomach to do what he has
> believed in his heart was the right thing to do.
>
> Now, events look like overtaking him. If Howard loses
> the election, Costello may never become prime minister.
>
> And instead of history remembering him as one of the country's
> most successful treasurers, it may well recall him as a
> craven wimp who let his party down right when it needed him most."
>
> Ah well, he and Rip Van Winston, who wanted to gout in a blaze
> of Glory but is just going down in the flames of his burning
> reputation, can lick each others wounds! B^D
>
>
>
>
>
> fasgnadh wrote:
>>
>> What Costello Really Thinks of Rip Van Winston, the Lying Rodent:
>>
>> The Age 19/7/2007
>>
>> " TENSIONS between the Howard Government's two leading
>> figures are to be exposed, with Peter Costello accusing
>> John Howard of putting his own interests ahead of the
>> Liberal Party's and suggesting that the Prime Minister's
>> office leaked material aimed at damaging the Treasurer.
>>
>> In what amounts to an attack on Mr Howard's trustworthiness
>> and truthfulness, Mr Costello also claims to be worried
>> about the sustainability of the Government's spending programs,
>> many of which were initiated by the Prime Minister.
>>
>> Mr Costello's comments are contained in John Winston Howard,
>> a biography of the Prime Minister to be published next week.
>> They come amid increased murmurings in sections of the Government
>> about the possibility of a change of leadership, as opinion polls
>> repeatedly show the Coalition trailing far behind the ALP.
>>
>> Mr Costello remains bitter about the leaking of a memo by then
>> Liberal Party president Shane Stone about the Government's
>> problems in early 2001, which singled out the Treasurer for
>> is handling of the GST. The memo was leaked to journalist
>> Laurie Oakes when there was media speculation about the
>> possibility of a Costello challenge. Mr Costello points
>> at the Prime Minister's office.
>>
>> "I read it as an attempt to finger me for the Government's
>> maladies at that point," he says. "Allegedly, only one copy
>> was ever written by Shane and it was given to John Howard.
>> Somehow, along the way, it got to Laurie Oakes. (Howard's)
>> office was deputised to do an investigation into who leaked it.
>> So you might ask them if they're ready to report yet …
>> As far as I know they're still doing it."
>>
>> Elsewhere in the book, it is revealed:
>>
>> â– Mr Howard was unhappy with Mr Costello for declaring
>> that he would put One Nation last on his how-to-vote card
>> in Higgins. "I advocated putting (Pauline Hanson) last.
>> Howard was very critical of me for doing that."
>>
>> â– Mr Howard considered appointing Jeff Kennett as
>> consul-general in New York, but dropped the idea
>> because it would antagonise Mr Costello.
>>
>> â– Mr Costello and other cabinet members argued for
>> the Howard ministry to participate in the reconciliation
>> walks in May 2000, but Mr Howard killed the idea.
>> Mr Costello says: "If the cabinet had walked across
>> the Sydney Harbour Bridge, it would have been enormously
>> 'symbolic." Mr Howard scoffs: "I didn't think prime
>> ministers walked."
>>
>> â– Mr Costello, frustrated at being overruled by the
>> free-spending Mr Howard in expenditure review committee
>> meetings before the 2001 election, would throw his hands
>> in the air and exclaim: "What is the point of these meetings?"
>>
>> â– John and Janette Howard have never had Mr Costello
>> and his wife Tanya to the Lodge or Kirribilli for dinner,
>> although they have had the Downers and the Abbotts over.
>> "It might be a Sydney thing," Mr Costello says.
>>
>> The Treasurer says he had expected Mr Howard to stick to
>> an agreement the two men made in 1994 for a leadership
>> transition after 1½ terms of government. In the Treasurer's
>> interview with the book's authors, academics Wayne Errington
>> and Peter van Onselen, he is said to have mocked the Prime
>> Minister as he discussed the 1994 agreement.
>>
>> "In our interview with him," they write, "Costello mimicked
>> Howard's voice as well as his slight mumble when discussing
>> an uncomfortable subject, indicating that Howard bounces
>> around the topic in such instances. Asked whether Howard
>> simply wanted to be leader more than him, Costello took
>> the moral high ground. 'The rival ambitions of Howard and
>> Peacock plunged the party into defeat in opposition.
>> They were prepared to do that. Keating was prepared to
>> do it to Hawke.
>>
>> Whatever my own ambitions were, the party was always
>> greater than them. I think that's been a big part of
>> our success over the last 10 years.' In other words,
>> Costello doesn't believe that Howard puts the Liberal
>> Party first."
>>
>> Asked if he felt betrayed by Mr Howard, Mr Costello
>> said: "What do you expect me to do? I don't cry myself
>> to sleep. I expected it to happen, it didn't happen,
>> and that's the reality and I deal in realities, so
>> life moves on … Perhaps if my diaries ever get published
>> you will know what I feel."
>>
>> Mr Howard insisted to Errington and van Onselen that
>> there had never been a deal, and he was backed by his
>> wife, Janette. Speaking about the controversy for the
>> first time, she told the authors: "You talk about a
>> whole lot of things when you're trying to convince
>> people to do things, but you don't go back and honour
>> every single one of those unless you have made a firm
>> commitment about it and John wasn't into making firm
>> commitments."
>>
>> The Treasurer also appeared to question the fiscal
>> responsibility of some of the Government's 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."
>>
>> He dismisses the Prime Minister's performance as
>> treasurer in the Fraser government, condemning Mr
>> Howard's record on inflation, interest rates and
>> economic reform. And he suggests that Mr Howard,
>> to bolster his own image, has repeatedly not told
>> the truth about disagreements with Malcolm Fraser
>> over economic policy.
>>
>> "Howard, when he had been treasurer in the Fraser
>> government, had not been a great reformer.
>> The Howard treasurership was not a success in terms
>> of interest rates and inflation."
>>
>> Mr Costello says he doubted the motivation behind
>> Mr Howard's conversion to dry economics in the 1980s.
>> "Howard, obviously looking for a constituency in the
>> Liberal Party, distinguished himself by saying
>> 'You know, well, really, I would have done financial
>> deregulation and I am against the industrial relations club'."
>>
>> But Mr Costello says there was little evidence that
>> Mr Howard really tried to push for deregulation when
>> he had a chance. He said Mr Howard "certainly didn't"
>> have major disagreements on industrial relations with
>> Mr Fraser, as Mr Howard has since suggested. Nor did
>> Mr Howard's stories about being stymied by Mr Fraser
>> on financial deregulation and fiscal policy ring true.
>>
>> "He (Howard) would say to you now, 'Oh well, I was
>> always in favour of it and Malcolm stopped it'. You
>> know, the truth of the matter is if he had really
>> wanted to push it he could have pushed it."
>>
>> Mr Costello also pooh-poohed Mr Howard's version
>> of his experience of considering resigning over
>> the 1982 budget — the Fraser government's last.
>>
>> "(Howard) was threatening resignation a long time
>> after the event, but there was no evidence at the time."
>>
>>
>> fasgnadh wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> In Interviews with Treasurer Peter Costello last year,
>>> to be published in a biography, he complains about Howard's
>>> leaks and says that in his time as treasurer Howard was a failure
>>> on interest rates and employment and not much of a reformer
>>> - Story on Lateline 18/7/2007
>>>
>>> The transcript should be available tomorrow on the ABC website,
>>> and the book will be a SELLOUT, just like Howard and Costello!
>>
>>
>>
>> Peter Costello, who knows Howard well, is now telling you what I
>> have been telling you for some time - Howard is not worthy to lead
>> this nation:
>>
>
>
---------
For some time I have been giving an accurate
description of Howard as a failed economic
manager, now in a new biography of Rip Van
Winston,Peter Costello agrees with me;
"After a successful few years as a junior minister in
Malcolm Fraser's government, Howard was promoted to
treasury, where his five years in the job can only
be judged as an unmitigated failure.
Take a look at the statistics.
When Howard left the treasury in March 1983, the
budget deficit was forecast at $9.6 billion, inflation
was 11 per cent, unemployment was 10.2 per cent,
the economy was in recession with negative
0.4 per cent growth, and housing interest rates
were 13 per cent.
And, despite the 1982-83 recession being the worst
since the Great Depression, Howard still managed to
increase the federal tax take from 25.1 per cent of
GDP in 1977 to 27.5 per cent of GDP by 1982-83.
Howard then spent 13 years in opposition, during
which - when he wasn't leader himself - he spent
a lot of time conspiring against the three leaders
he served under: Andrew Peacock, John Hewson and
Alexander Downer."
Compare that to Costello himself bagging Howard
as a hopeless treasurer and responsible for
reckless spending that will damage the Australian
economy for decades!
"The Treasurer also appeared to question the fiscal
responsibility of some of the Government's 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."
When the treasure says his government is engaged in
reckless expenditure which will damage the
Australian economy for DECADES to come, then
their claims of Economc Management are in TATTERS! 8^o
"He dismisses the Prime Minister's performance as
treasurer in the Fraser government, condemning Mr
Howard's record on inflation, interest rates and
economic reform. And he suggests that Mr Howard,
to bolster his own image, has repeatedly not told
the truth about disagreements with Malcolm Fraser
over economic policy.
"Howard, when he had been treasurer in the Fraser
government, had not been a great reformer.
The Howard treasurership was not a success in terms
of interest rates and inflation."
Mr Costello says he doubted the motivation behind
Mr Howard's conversion to dry economics in the 1980s.
"Howard, obviously looking for a constituency in the
Liberal Party, distinguished himself by saying
'You know, well, really, I would have done financial
deregulation and I am against the industrial relations club'."
But Mr Costello says there was little evidence that
Mr Howard really tried to push for deregulation when
he had a chance. He said Mr Howard "certainly didn't"
have major disagreements on industrial relations with
Mr Fraser, as Mr Howard has since suggested. Nor did
Mr Howard's stories about being stymied by Mr Fraser
on financial deregulation and fiscal policy ring true.
"He (Howard) would say to you now, 'Oh well, I was
always in favour of it and Malcolm stopped it'. You
know, the truth of the matter is if he had really
wanted to push it he could have pushed it."
Mr Costello also pooh-poohed Mr Howard's version
of his experience of considering resigning over
the 1982 budget — the Fraser government's last.
"(Howard) was threatening resignation a long time
after the event, but there was no evidence at the time.
------------
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