>
> "How Costello planned the PM's demise" - The Age 15/8/2007
>
> "TREASURER Peter Costello vowed 2½ years ago to
> destroy John Howard's leadership if the Prime
> Minister did not hand over the reins."
>
> Another BROKEN PROMISE from the tories! B^D
>
> BWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAhahaahahahahahaahahahahahahahaaaaaaaa!
>

> "But as he turned 50 yesterday, Mr Costello — who in
> a public display of solidarity invited the Prime
> Minister to a birthday drinks party at Parliament
> House last night — faced yet another federal election
> in Mr Howard's shadow, his leadership ambitions still
> beyond his grasp."
>
> Costello just lacks ticker. All froth, no bottle.
>
> Now he is revealed as just another tory LIAR, trying to deny
> that he ever threatened to plot to bring down Rip Van Winston!
>
> "In a conversation that revealed the depth of his disdain
> for the Prime Minister, Mr Costello set a deadline of
> April 2006 for Mr Howard to hand him the leadership.
> If this did not occur, he vowed he would challenge
> the Prime Minister."
>
> And what is a Costello 'vow' worth? Sweet F.A.
>
> He's too gutless to do more than PLOT DISLOYALLY
> and leak his clear disdain for PM Sneaky!
>
> "He recognised that he was unlikely to win such a challenge,
> but said he would go to the back bench and foment turmoil.
> He said he would "carp" at Mr Howard's leadership and "destroy it"."
>
> What a Dog-in-the-Manger!! 8^o He admits he is even less of
> a winner than the Prime Mendacity, but threatens to destabilise
> the party anyway!!?! 8^o
>
> Anyway Howard has said he will stay as long as his Party wants
> him! Yesterday we found out Costello doesn't, and now the
> opposition to Howard continuing as leader has DOUBLED! B^D
>
> "The revelations of Costello's dinner remarks came as new
> dissension emerged within the Coalition, with outspoken
> Western Australian MP Wilson Tuckey sending a fax to Mr
> Howard calling on him to step down."
>
> Ironbar can smell which way the wind is blowing! ;-)
>
> "The fax was also inadvertently sent to a number of other
> Liberal MPs, who were furious last night at Mr Tuckey's
> intervention."
>
> That would be about as 'inadvertent' as Costello telling Howard's
> biographer he was a rubbish treasurer with a pitiful record
> of 'economic management'! B^D
>
> "At the 2005 dinner, during a long and detailed exposition
> of his plans, Mr Costello said the Liberal Party needed him
> as leader if it was to win this year's election."
>
> Wow, he sure got that wrong! Good thing they didn't
> change horses to such a clueless tosser!
>
> "And he declared Mr Howard would have no chance with any
> other deputy."
>
> No one as loyal as Costello available? B^D
>
> "Why would he risk everything on such drastic action,
> Mr Costello was asked. "Because he (Howard) will
> lose the election," the Treasurer said.
>
> "He can't win. I can. We can, but he can't."
>
> BWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHA!
>
> Sounds like a prediction for 2007, when it is 50%% right! B^D
>
> "He was asked on the Today program about the veracity of
> a recent article in The Bulletin that said he had been
> putting it around in March 2005 that "Howard can't win. I can."
>
> And he did what any weak, gutless, disloyal snake with no Ticker
> would do, he lied his head off to protect his arse! B^D
>
> "Asked if he had used those words, Mr Costello said he could
> not imagine where such a comment could have come from and
> suggested journalists had made them up. "I must say, when
> I read some of these things, I wonder where the journalists
> get them from," he said."
>
> That's easy Smirk, they got it from YOU! B^D
>
> Jeez if the altzheimers is setting in so bad perhaps even
> Rip Van Winston is more alert that you! B^D
>
> "They generally speak to somebody who's spoken to somebody who was down
> the back of the pub who heard the barman say it, and it gradually finds
> its way into magazines or articles. But no. That's not the case."
>
> As liars go, he is certainly one of the more LONGWINDED! B^D
>
> Wasn't Beezly unpopular for being so prolix!? ;-)
>
> "He later flatly denied the story when asked about it on
> Sky News and demanded to know why a journalist would keep
> such a story confidential if it were true."
>
> Howard has pretended to stand by him anyway! B^D
>
> They are like a couple of Spice Girls denying a break-up!
>
> "In fact, Mr Costello gave a furiously frank assessment
> of the Coalition's electoral chances under Mr Howard
> during the 2005 dinner at Waters Edge, a restaurant
> on the shore of Canberra's Lake Burley Griffin.
>
> Attending were the chief political correspondent of
> The Bulletin, Paul Daley, the political editor of ABC's
> The 7.30 Report, Michael Brissenden, and myself.
> I was national affairs editor of The Bulletin at the time.
>
> Over some bottles of fine wine, Mr Costello detailed
> a daring strategy to blast Mr Howard out of the leadership.
> His plan was reminiscent of the strategy used by Labor
> treasurer Paul Keating to remove Bob Hawke in 1991."
>
> BWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAAHAHAHAAHA!
>
> Costello sees himself as Keating Lite! B^D
>
> The difference is KEATING HAD TICKER! B^D
>
> Costello is all mouth! B^p
>
> "Mr Costello said he would be neither treasurer nor deputy
> leader of the Liberal Party at the next election."
>
> Uh Huh.. sure.. whatever! B^p
>
> He would either be prime minister or on the back bench.
> He was convinced that Mr Howard could not win without
> him because, at 68, the Prime Minister would be seen
> as too old.
>
> Mr Costello believed that once all the Liberal MPs
> understood the Government would be paralysed by
> leadership turmoil, support would flow his way."
>
> Support is important for any bloke with BALLS,
> that lets Costello off!
>
> "However, Mr Costello said he hoped it would not
> come to a challenge and that Mr Howard would stand
> aside for the good of the Government before it
> came to a showdown."
>
> Gollum give up his Preshus?!?? Make us laugh! B^D
>
> Howard, as we have all seen will NEVER relinquish POWER,
> he would rather take the Liberals down with him.
>
> "Mr Costello said he had set April 2006 as the absolute deadline."
>
> 'Deadline' for him to wimp out? B^D
>
> "This was mid-term, and he believed he would need half
> a parliamentary term, or 18 months, to establish himself
> as the new prime minister before the election due towards
> the end of 2007."
>
> Poor old Smirk .. he was, and always has been DREAMING!
>
> He doesn't have what it takes to be a leader!
>
> "And if Mr Howard was still refusing to leave by April 2006, we asked Mr
> Costello.
>
> "Then it's on," he said."
>
> BWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHA
>
> He's like that woos in school who talks tough to try and
> impress da Boyz ..till they get sick of him mincing about and
> smack him down.
>
> The Treasurer also said that Mr Howard's departure — and his own
> leadership ambitions — would be hastened if Mr Beazley was replaced by
> "a stronger leader".
>
> B^D Does the Smirk ever get ANYTHING right? B^D
>
> "Mr Costello made it clear that his decision to force
> a leadership showdown had been growing since Mr Howard
> had told two journalists during an interview in Athens
> that he believed he could beat Mr Beazley — a comment
> interpreted by Mr Costello to mean the Prime Minister
> was about to renege on an implicit agreement to hand
> over the leadership mid-term."
>
> Oh, boo fucking hoo, anyone have a tissue for Mr
> Keating Lite Wannabee? B^p
>
>
>
> -------
>
>

>> 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.