Tuesday 13 May 2008

Liberal Party determined to devour itself

If it wasn't enough that Brendan Nelson was declared leader of the federal parliamentary Liberal Party with a bloody knife visibly sticking out from between his shoulder blades which appeared to encourage the party to indulge in a fresh round of divisive state leadership games, now we have in-fighting at the Victorian state body level which has blood running in the gutters.
First it was discovered that the blog Ted Baillieu Must Go was administered by party members.

At least two staff sackings came out of that and it's rumoured that the party went directly to Google to have this blog snuffed.
Now a state campaign manager has been outed (in what looks suspiciously like internal payback) and forced to resign over an anti-Semitic email sent during the 2007 federal election.
Victorian Lib leader, 'Red' Ted Baillieu, is hitting out at all and sundry by pledging a 'purge', with Melbourne's The Age happy to oblige with
publication of any details.
Red Ted's public hissy fit shows just how thin the Baillieu blood runs in the current generation.
Word is out that prominent names at state and federal levels will get an airing before the Victorian Libs stop devouring themselves.


Like just about everyone else I managed to get a look at the ditched blog and the Baillieu montage above comes from that site.

Meanwhile in New South Wales the cracks widen...

Yesterday Crikey reported:
Debnam has resigned from the Opposition’s front bench, paving the way for current Liberal leader Barry O’Farrell to announce a shadow cabinet reshuffle this morning (11.30am).
In an unexpected dummy-spit which has annoyed many of his colleagues, Debnam has sent a private email explaining his action:
I have been opposed to Michael Costa’s electricity privatisation and despite lacking the numbers in Parliament to stop it, I’ve argued for the Coalition to take a strong stand against the privatisation and in favour of clean renewable energy. However, in my view, the conditional acceptance announced late last week by the Coalition effectively surrenders to Costa’s privatisation. Given my strong views, it is untenable for me to continue as the Shadow Minister for Energy and remain on the frontbench simply biting my tongue.
Debnam has given an undertaking to stay in parliament and contest the next election in 2011 as the MP for Vaucluse – so there will be no embarrassing by-election.

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