Tim Blair

CARE FOR KITTIES

One stupid senator gets crazy with the wine and schoolmarm Susan Brown thinks the whole country is headed to booze hell.

What about poor hellbound cartoon cats, Susan? Why does nobody care about the hellbound alcoholic cartoon cats?

In other Australian news:

• Alan Wood lists the good guys and the bad in Australia’s tariff wars. Good: Alf Rattigan, Gough Whitlam, Peter Wilensky, Bob Hawke, Paul Keating, and John Howard. Bad: John McEwen, Jim Cairns, Malcolm Fraser, John Button, John Dawkins ... and John Howard.

• For someone with such a low opinion of George W. Bush, Mark Latham sure doesn’t mind stealing his ideas:

"I have appointed Robert McClelland to the newly created homeland security portfolio, demonstrating Labor's commitment to a dedicated cabinet minister responsible for security in Australia," Mr Latham said.

• Latham’s first poll numbers are already higher than anything Simon Crean achieved in two years, although the government would still have won had an election been held on the weekend. Also, John Howard’s approval rating has increased from 59% to 63%.

• Speaking of Crean, the new Labor leader has installed an old shadow treasurer:

Sniffing the return of Crean before the announcement, Costello couldn't contain his glee. "Rollback or throwback?" he quipped. Confirmation brought a stream of reminders of Crean's Greatest Hits, including Labor's official 2001 election post-mortem.

It found the ALP to be all over the shop on interest rates, taxation and economic management, and way too negative on the GST. Crean, you'll recall, was shadow treasurer at the time.

Crean as shadow treasurer will feature hugely in the government’s campaign advertising.

Posted by Tim Blair at December 9, 2003 04:52 AM