Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Help For a Failing Memory

IN CASE you haven't seen it, here is the inside dope (no, not Tim) via Wikileaks on what the US Embassy knew to be going on Canberra in June, 2010, even as our for-the-moment PM insists -- swears on her love for Tim, even -- that she did not.

Below is the most interesting bit. And remember, it was sent off to Washington on June 10. Gillard knifed Rudd 15 days later.

She's such a liar.


THE FRONT RUNNER 
 
11. (C/NF) COMMENT: All the ALP MPs we have spoken to have 
enormous respect for Gillard.  However, as one ALP Right MP 
told us, choosing a leader from the Left would be a massive 
cultural change for the ALP.  Don Farrell, the right-wing 
union powerbroker from South Australia told us Gillard is 
"campaigning for the leadership" and at this point is the 
front-runner to succeed Rudd, conceding that the Right did 
not yet have an alternative.  Agriculture Minister Tony 
Burke, one of the early NSW Right backers of the Rudd-Gillard 
team, confided that Gillard is the clear front runner to 
succeed Rudd and in the end, the ALP caucus will follow the 
opinion polls if she is the one the public wants.  Two keenly 
anticipated books on Gillard are expected to be released 
within the next 12 months (one of them authored by the wife 
of Beazley's former Chief of Staff).  At present, the 
question of a successor to Rudd is probably two elections 
away.  Several Rudd confidantes have told us that Rudd 
appreciates Gillard and sees her as a possible PM, but that 
he wants to avoid anointing her to head off a possible 
leadership challenge when his poll numbers inevitably sag. 
The PM's brother Greg told us in April that Rudd wants to 
ensure that there are viable alternatives to Gillard within 
the Labor Party to forestall a challenge.  Mark Arbib once 
told us a similar story, though he stressed that Rudd 
appreciates Gillard's strengths.  However, another Rudd 
advisor told us that while the PM respects Gillard, his 
reluctance to share power will eventually lead to a falling 
out, while Gillard will not want to acquiesce in creating 
potential rivals.  In the meantime, Gillard has proven her 
value to the Prime Minister and we expect her to remain the 
most important member of the Rudd Government, after the Prime 
Minister himself. 

5 comments:

  1. The US writer should be given a column, and maybe explain to the local 'journalists' what it is to be a reporter. The problem may the naming of the sources!

    -Carl

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  2. "The PM's brother Greg told us in April...", perhaps I'm wrong but I'm picturing Greg having a casual chin wag with CIA ops at a cocktail function or maybe down at a popular watering hole. It's kind of odd how it becomes the stuff of secret government intelligence, like not quite James Bond.

    Some of this information could give a guy like Assange a handsome edge in betting markets ;-)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Why did Hillary Clinton call in Kim Beazely in the days before Julia Gillard knifed Kevin Rudd?

    Because Hillary Clinton and Julia Gillard are both members of Emily's list. Hillary wanted to make sure Julia was going to be the first female Prime Minister of Australia after she failed to become the first female President of the United States.

    ReplyDelete
  4. What is remarkable about this report is the sheer indiscretion of supposedly professional political operatives.
    Perhaps flattered by the attention, they spill what they shouldn't to seem bigger wheels than they are.
    One thing is politics is certain: the more status hungry a player is, the more they'll blab.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Isn't what these Australians have done, treason? Especially as a duly elected PM was overthrown?

    ReplyDelete