Mark Latham: That's Not Being A Sexist Pig, This Is Being A Sexist Pig - Federal Election 2013

Former Labor Party leader Mark Latham can't help but get involved in Tony Abbott's 'Sexy Time' controversy:

"It showed very bad judgement and it shows (Tony Abbott) has low standards.

"I had a good look at Fiona Scott on page eight ... and she doesn't have sex appeal at all.

"She's not that good of a sort."

"She's a rather plain ordinary-looking woman and Abbott has exaggerated massively to try and win her vote among the blokes ... "

"Tony had the beer goggles on and in politics they say it's showbiz for ugly people and I don't think she'll (Fiona) be out of place."

This is appalling.

Former Labor leader Mark Latham on PMLive, Sky News :

"...the things you had to do to go through the motions of the standard political contest....I hate the idea of war. I'm not a fan of the military, and many of the people in it.

"...I had to crap on a bit (praising the troops), get that over. Everyone does it. But if you came out and said 'I don't really think much of the troops', you'd end up with no seats and no votes. So that's the nature of politics.

"Those things don't rest easy with me now. I mean, you've got to be comfortable with yourself, first and foremost.

"...it is very hard for politicians in the environment where....you've got to toe the party line, you got to toe a lot of national emotional line, and if you don't necessarily agree with that, then go get another job, and that's what I did."

Mark Latham writing in the Australian Financial Review, August 20, 2009 (not online) :

Over the years I have received tender messages from (current prime minister Julia) Gillard saying how much she misses me in Canberra. One of them concerned her study tour of the US, sponsored by the American government in 2006 -- or to use her moniker -- "a CIA re-education course". She asked me to "stand by for emails explaining George Bush is a great statesman, torture is justified in many circumstances and those Iraqi insurgents should just get over it".

She promised "to catch up when I'm back from the US and I'll show you my CIA-issued ankle-holster". I never got to see her ankles or her holster, but I will say this: you have to hand it to those guys in Washington, they have a way of making lefties like Gillard change their minds on foreign policy. Within the space of two years, they converted her from a highly cynical critic of all matters American into yet another political sycophant.

The poor woman has been brainwashed.

Haunting :

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Mark Latham on the state of Australian political journalism :

“Perversely, the only press gallery specialists who have survived are the so-called sketch writers, frustrated comedians who, more often than not, are as funny as a burning orphanage.”

The Australian Financial Review keeps its Mark Latham columns beyond a payers-only firewall, so you can't read it unless you buy a copy. How very, very 1997.

Bolt Tries I-R-O-N-Y

Tony Abbott Furious At Dirty, Rotten Labor Trick He Didn't Think Of Pulling First

Andrew Bolt, of the Herald Sun, sure knows "crude propaganda" when he sees it.

And why wouldn't he? It's his daily currency.

Bolt figures Lateline fell for a pretty seedy Labor party trick when they aired carefully edited video of Tony Abbott revealing, at a public meeting held during the week, that a great swathe of workers "protections" had been swept away by WorkChoices. It was Tony Abbott speaking the truth.

But the full, unedited video shows Abbott explaining his point in more detail, while making the exact same point. However, the video aired by Lateline on Thursday night had been slickened into a fast soundbite that played on all TV networks and most radio news bulletins throughout Friday. A flood of stories claimed Abbott had admitted WorkChoices robbed workers of once valued protections (he did), and that he said if you don't like your job, then quit.

Another full day of Howard and Abbott forced onto the defensive, and seen nervously answering questions about how WorkChoices is screwing workers. Not how either would have wanted, or planned, to spend the day.

And all this was on top of the auditor general's report which revealed Howard & Friends had rorted the taxpayers of hundreds of millions of dollars in 2004 for pet projects in electorates where they were begging or paying for votes. Howard was left mumbling that he "hadn't been briefed on the report." Ha!

In all, an absolutely nightmarish day for Coalition, which must have had Howard wondering if someone had slipped hallucinogens into his breakfast eggs.

Bolt claims the 'edited' video was a crude and dirty trick by Labor, echoing Tony Abbott, naturally.

The woman who may well be deputy prime minister soon, Julia Gillard, fired back with :

"What appears on that tape is what Mr Abbott said. There has been nothing done to that tape, it appears as Mr Abbott said it, with the words coming out of his mouth that he said and he meant."

Which is true enough. No matter how the video is sliced and diced, Abbott said what he said. The only context is that Abbott and Bolt hate the way it played to the public.

A crude, dirty trick dreamed up by Labor and given life by Lateline?

As crude a dirty trick as the 'video scandal' orchestrated by Liberal attack dogs (hmm, Tony Abbott?) and a appallingly pliant media during the 2004 campaign, where Mark Latham spent endless days denying there was a virtual pornographic bucks night video of him floating around.

There was no video. It was simply a sleazy smear campaign originating in Crikey, and then widely promoted, discussed and debated by Andrew Bolt's media friends and colleagues.

Perhaps Andrew Bolt is more upset by the fact that the edited Abbott video got so much play in the media and was so effective in ramming home Labor's mantra that workers are far worse off under WorkChoices?

Rudd's now legendary 'head messing' continues, relentlessly.

"Crude propaganda" indeed.


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