Tim Blair

"Mr Keating said the history of the couple's marriage should remain private.

"I was saddened that she thought it was appropriate to share her views with the public," he said".

I bet he did. Annita's story makes Keating look like a real p**ck.

But those of us who lived here when Keating was PM knew that already.

So, Tim, did you meet the minister? Did you pick up any pointers on how to be a more evil force?

The leftoids here never shut up about Gingrich breaking up with his wife while she was in the hospital undergoing cancer treatment (nor should they, mind you). This, however, will be treated as a "private" matter.

Hey, don't forget another excellent Bulletin story producing more revelations in the Lance Collins - you know, the high ranking the defence intelligence officer calling for a Royal Commission into how Australia's intellegence agencies have been compromised by interference from the Howard government?

Sheesh, don't you read your own magazine? Every Australian media outlet has been reporting it for more than a wekk now. Good old John Lyons. What a journalist, huh?

Excuse the typos, I was so excited by John Lyons wonderful journalism.

That would be the apostrohphe at the edn of Lyons' name you missed twice you twit.

I have no excuse for my typos, but then again i'm not complete turkey like Miranda. I guess we all have faults, some more than others.

Miranda, I think that Collins' major contention is that it's the culture of - and flawed inter-relationships between - intelligence services that's the problem. Politicians are ultimately pretty peripheral to his case although PJK's overly close relationship with Suharto might bear some scrutiny in the light of his assertion that a pro-Jakarta lobby has operated in DFAT for 20 odd years.

Go on.

Somebody has to say it.

"This is the divorce we had to have, darling!"

That had to have been a wedding in a Uniting Church, no? Or else Perth Anglican.

Scary was the statement that Mrs Keating did not even rate a mention in Don Watsons autobiography of Keating.

The irony, Labour and the left, championing womens's issues and the role of women in society and he treats his wife like a doormat.

Don't you read your most beloved and favourite website, Miranda? I mentioned the Lyons piece the day that it was published.

Well, I guess that makes Miranda the bling-bling.

While we're on the issues of grammer and style, why not consider the prospective title mooted by Richard Bell: "Kill the white man. Kill him till he's dead".

While this is a little disconcerting (from a whaite man's point of view) I wonder if it is possible to kill someone until they are anything OTHER than dead?

Don't you read your most beloved and favourite website, Miranda? I mentioned the Lyons piece the day that it was published.

What? Uh... BLOGLIES! HGSAJBDKJASDGHAS! BLOGMIRE!!!!1111 -----

There's been rumours around for some time that Keating is an uphill gardener. (Mind you, his wife is a bit of a woofer- being married to an ugly Dutchwoman could turn anyone into a pillowbiter).

"uphill gardener"? I get what it means, but why does it mean that?

So who's his girlfriend then? C'mon, someone must know. Michelle Grattan? Margo Kingston? Cheryl Kernot?

Very unkind to Annita, Habib. She must be the only Labor woman not to have short hair with the 'little girl' fringe, the 'I'm serious' black-rimmed glasses, big earrings, 'we-all-look-the-same' bright red power lipstick, and a man suit.

Carmen would have to be his girlfriend: the sort you have when you're not having the gardener -oops, I meant some uphill gardening.

Further to Lance Collins, other whistleblowers on Defence culture of denial took similar issues to Defence Minister Kim Beazley. Result? Polite fobbing off, re-assignment to potato-pealing detail. Resignation.

The problems started amongst the intellectuals of the 1960's, were institutionalised under Whitlam, continued under Fraser...by now it's been 2 generations since any 'expert' knew what a realistic (hawkish) Defence or Foreign Affairs policy consists of.

Despite that, the Forces do their best under the circumstances.

Man, this guy is the part of the arse that you wipe! I can't help wondering if he's related to Tom Daschle of the Democrats. He was "saddened" by his wife revealing him as a primo hypocrite; Daschle would have been "disappointed."

For our brothers across the Great Pond: To imagine Keating, think of a cross between LBJ and Howard Dean.

(Ie, Bob Hawke was JFK -- in so many ways: then Keating succeeded him in mid-term after an "assassination", won another term, but then his party was kicked out. PJK and LBJ started off as hard men of the Right, tainted with ballot-stuffing, but in mid-term suddenly discovered the cause of legislating to advance racial equality after court decisions handed them that hot potato. PJK and LBJ also came to grief pursuing foreign policies that involved being too cosy to right-wing Asian generals-cum-presidents.)

ilibcc,

-- Victoria really and truly has a govt minister named "Candy Broad"?

Or that just the nicknames Ice Marks give she when she begin a-hangin' wiv he posse?

Definition supplied. Funny- a google search for this term came up with this scurrilous site as the first two hits.

That's The Honourable Candy Broad, Uncle Milk. Not just any ol' off-the-street Candy Broad. We got standards!

The website you linked to lists it as

"Broad, The Honourable Candy"

Sounds like it should be listed on Amazon. Probably with the cookbooks. ;-)

Hey Habib, I think you crossed the line with your crack about Anita Keating.

As for Paul Keating being an uphill gardener, I think you're barking up the wrong tree. Word around town is that he was rooting Janet Holmes a Court, so I guess apart from being Australia's LBJ, he could also be our John Kerry i.e. piss your wife off and start rooting a billionaires widow.