bye bye Mr Rudd

[dedja]

Dead man walking now ...

[Tassie Blues]

from Rudd to Dudd goodbye and god bless would like to say its been great having you but i cant. Maybe in your next job you should do what you say you are going to do and you might keep it a bit longer.

[dedja]

He's not expected to survive tonight.

[wycbloods]

He's not expected to survive tonight.

I certainly hope so. Labor might be a chance of winning the upcoming election with Julia as the leader.

[dedja]

News conference from Rudd any minute now ...

[dedja]

Leadership spill at 9am tomorrow. Gillard will win the ballot and Rudd will be dumped ... the bloke is in fairyland if he thinks that he can win FFS.

[Q.]

What the ****.


The factional right will get their way again.


**** I hate this country sometimes.

[southee]

Hes gone!!!!!

Thanks for f**king up the country Ruddy!!!

[wycbloods]

What the ****.


The factional right will get their way again.


**** I hate this country sometimes.

It was reported that the Left is supporting Rudd and the Right is supporting Gillard.........................very strange as they are from the opposite factions themselves.

A few people in the right would be wanting to make sure Gillard wins or they will be history themselves i would think.

[wycbloods]

What the ****.


The factional right will get their way again.


**** I hate this country sometimes.

It was reported that the Left is supporting Rudd and the Right is supporting Gillard.........................very strange as they are from the opposite factions themselves.

A few people in the right would be wanting to make sure Gillard wins or they will be history themselves i would think.

"I was elected by the people of Australia to do a job. I was not elected by the factional leaders of the Labor Party to do a job. Although they may be seeking to do a job on me."

Doesn't leave many options with comments like that. Either the factional leaders will go or he will.

I'm backing the factional leaders.

[Q.]

I'm backing the factional leaders.

Of course. The Power Elite run this country.

[Squawk]

Who are the factional leaders in Federal Labor?

[wycbloods]

I'm backing the factional leaders.

Of course. The Power Elite run this country.

Shorten and Ludwig the big movers here i believe.

It is all over for Rudd.

[GWW]

Who are the factional leaders in Federal Labor?

There's a bit in this article on msn re this:

The drama is believed to have begun on Wednesday morning when NSW powerbroker Mark Arbib, Victorians Bill Shorten and Dave Feeney, and South Australian Don Farrell visited Ms Gillard to tell her they had lost confidence in the prime minister.

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/national/107 ... leadership

[Squawk]

I didn't realise Farrell was a federal godfather (of the right) as well as a state godfather. He's in his first term too, along with Arbib, IIRC.

The interesting factor could be that as factional leaders they are sick of the 'kitchen cabinet' of Rudd, Gillard, Tanner and Swan making all the decisions. Thoughts on this anyone?

[fisho mcspaz]

No deep insights from me tonight, I'm a bit pissed. Might ramble on for a bit though. I just saw the announcement thingo with Rudd. I do think that Julia Gillard could salvage Labor and I hope that she does get the leadership. If Tony Abbott wins the election I'm seriously going to think about moving to New Zealand or whatever other country will pay me to write stuff.

My first thought when I watched Rudd's announcement tonight was - what a shame. I remember when he took over from Kim Beazley. I was in America at the time and got the news from a phone call and I was just exhilarated - I mean, I was a leftie uni student in the time before VSU choked our voices. Howard got in when I was 11 so I was too young to have really known what Australia was like under a Labor government - yet Labor was whom I'd followed all my politically aware life (albeit second preference to the Greens). And when I got back to Australia and listened to Kevin Rudd on the radio, I truly believed in him and I hoped that he would reverse the miserly and sometimes archaic policies of the Liberals. And then he got in, and after a decent interval he buggered off overseas!

I suppose I feel... deceived. It's weird. I feel like I was very young - although it wasn't that long ago - when Rudd became the PM. My other half and I were pissing up in his one-bedroom flat in Coro, doing our Tony Abbott impersonations and occasionally screaming incoherent victory chants out of the window. Now we live in a real house and have two children. Maybe that's why I feel older now. But I digress. I think at the time Rudd took over the leadership, I was quite cynical about politics and he was the first person in a long time I'd allowed myself to believe in. And it's all gone to s**t, and it didn't have to. That's what s**ts me. I'm just gutted. But temporarily. If Julia wins the leadership I shall be renewed because I think she's fantastic.

'Fair shake of the sauce bottle' was the death knell as far as I'm concerned. I think half the Australian population probably cringed when they heard that. Ugh. Let's look at this logically. Does Kevin come across as a stereotypical ocker with one of those hats with the corks dangling off it, lassoing jumbucks and boiling billy tea? NO! HE IS MISTER GODDAMN SHEEN. THUS HE SHOULD TALK LIKE WHATEVER WE IMAGINE MR SHEEN TO TALK LIKE. It would have made him come across as perhaps slightly more honest in a world where we expect politicians to lie as a matter of course.

OK, that's the end of my ruminations. I shall probably awake tomorrow and read this and feel ashamed of myself for being a pisshead. But it is the truth, I'd probably just have a more succinct way of saying it if I was sober as a judge. Are judges really that sober, though? Doesn't sound like much fun. That's it, I'm outta here. G'night fellow posters.

[Gozu]

As mentioned Shorten, Feeney & Farrell withdrew their support for Rudd and gave it to Gillard, the NSW Right also likes to be seen to be backing a winner then came the WA Right & the Queensland Right. The Right controls the party which means Rudd's gone. Supposedly the Left are fracturing between support for Rudd and Gillard but that doesn't really matter.

Rudd should've resigned at his press conference tonight as he would've been told to do. Instead he's going down fighting and as things look has no chance now of beating Gillard in the leadership vote tomorrow morning. Unfortunately that was one of the best press conferences I've seen from Rudd in terms of passion and straight talking but it's come too late. His shot at the factional leaders was essentially a "F__k you" on the way out the door.

He made a few points about how he wants an ETS and not being willing to follow Tony Abbott on a race to the bottom on asylum seekers but the facts are he made those decisions even though he was clearly getting bad advice. You can't now on your deathbed turn around and say you didn't want to shelve the ETS or didn't want to go down into the sewer with Abbott & the Libs, you did.

A very unfortunate situation and clearly Gillard didn't want to be handed the PM's job like this but she was pushed into it and has to accept it.

[Squawk]

So if Rudd loses the leadership - does he go to the backbench until the election? Or does he waltz out the door of politics and into another place? Surely there wouldn't be a by-election this close to a real election, but on the other hand, who would want to stick around in politics after being deposed as PM by your own party?

Presumably this means Gillard is packing her bags for the G20 too. And Rudd is on the phone to the Oval Office, stuck on hold as Obama deals with McCrystal as we speak, about to plead for some help? or a job at the UN?

I think Gillard is seen as the safe candidate to deliver another term for Labor. That's what this would all be about. Ironically, Rudd defeated Howard after 12 months in opposition and now Gillard could be off to the polls with only a handful of months in the top job. And no doubt bringing a lot of female voters to Labor at the polls, to install Australia's first elected female PM?

[Gozu]

So if Rudd loses the leadership - does he go to the backbench until the election? Or does he waltz out the door of politics and into another place? Surely there wouldn't be a by-election this close to a real election, but on the other hand, who would want to stick around in politics after being deposed as PM by your own party?

Presumably this means Gillard is packing her bags for the G20 too. And Rudd is on the phone to the Oval Office, stuck on hold as Obama deals with McCrystal as we speak, about to plead for some help? or a job at the UN?

I think Gillard is seen as the safe candidate to deliver another term for Labor. That's what this would all be about. Ironically, Rudd defeated Howard after 12 months in opposition and now Gillard could be off to the polls with only a handful of months in the top job. And no doubt bringing a lot of female voters to Labor at the polls, to install Australia's first elected female PM?

I don't think there will be much love for Rudd there for taking it to a vote tomorrow, Foreign Affairs maybe?. Swan's already been given the Deputy PM spot to appease the factions. I doubt Gillard would go to the G20 like they said tonight they can just send someone else. Labor are still leading in the polls anyway and IMO a move to Gillard pretty much locks in victory at the next election.

[Squawk]

I think you're right (no pun intended!) about Gillard locking in a Labor win at the next election. Gillard v Hockey at the following election?

I guess Swan might hit the G20. Whatever happens, there's a plane waiting to take off and it's a helluva trip to Canada in the "Vip" as it is known!