Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Rudd calls a ballot for leadership 9am tomorrow

I must get to work early to listen to this on the radio...

Should be very interesting!

Julia had the doorstop leaving the rooms in parliament house. No comment except she is a contender.

She looked and sounded like she'd been sucking lemons...

Update:
Catallaxy has a transcript of Rudd's press conference from last night when he emerged from his office...

9 comments:

Stevo said...

Hi Kae, so the pot and the kettle are challenging ... is it now Kev When? ... he looked rattled at the press conference just shown on the telly ... I can't remember when a Federal leader has gone public like he has on a leadership challenge ... yes, will be checking tomorrow like you, but very interesting? ... hmmmm
Stevo

Anonymous said...

Don't know what you were watching - Stevo- Laurie Oakes reported that is was probably one of the bravest and strongest speeches that Kevin Rudd has made.
You would not have seen a leader stand up like Rudd did , because Costello was too gutless to challenge Howard.
The most gracious speech I remember was from John Gorton ,after he was knifed in the back by Fraser and his cronies in 1971.Gorton even used his casting vote to give the P.M'Sjob to Billy McMahon- Fraser just kept on knifing his leaders in the back,until he got the top dogs job!

kae said...

In Lorry Oaktree's unbiased opinion?
Yes, I saw the speech.
It was the usual drivel from Rudd, though I think he handled the "are you gutted, do you feel betrayed" question well, the rest of it was horse shit - same old same old saved Aus from GFC. One restrained paragraph in over three years of crap doesn't make him statesman like PM material.

Anonymous
Please use a name.

Boy on a bike said...

Costello never took on Howard because even when Howard was at his worst, he was not in a hole as deep as Rudd.

Wand said...

She looked and sounded like she'd been sucking lemons...

Yes she did... now I wonder if she'd been on the receiving end of one Kevni's tongue!

Merilyn said...

Didn't see the interview, but have to say, that Labor will be making a mistake with Julia, for the simple reason that she has overseen one of the biggest waste of taxpayers money on the BER's, she has been right up there with Rudd on every issue, when she could have stepped away, and said she wanted no part of what was happening.
If Labor wanted a real change they should have gone with a new person, and NOT one of the "inner four", Swan/Gillard/Tanner, and of course Rudd.

lotocoti said...

This morning's editorial conference call should be a hoot.
All week the Parly bureau has been in 'nothing to see here, move on mode'.
I'm going to pick up some popcorn on the way to work.

Anonymous said...

"She looked and sounded like she'd been sucking lemons..."

I have a theory on that, Kae.

When the TV station I was watching suddenly cut to Canberra, they announced it was because Rudd was about to announce that he had stood down. The banner fixed at the bottom of the screen throughout the following story said the same.

Rudd arrived and instead announced that there would be a ballot in the morning "at Julia's request".

I think that was crap. I believe that the Julia, her supporters and the media were all led to believe that Rudd would announce that he was standing down - handing the leadership to Gillard.

Instead, to the shock and disgust of them all, he announced a ballot.

I think he double-crossed everyone BIG time in one last, desperate bid to hang on.

Regards
Sandi

Merilyn said...

Sandi, wonder if when they were all in Rudd's office the night before that they made a deal?
Julia has said that Rudd can stay at the Lodge for as long as he likes, [according to the media] which is strange, since that is the PM's residence.