Dec 112007
 

I’ve categorised this entry under ‘Blogworld’, which is to say it’s about blogs and bloggers, per se, just not the ones we usually equate with the Oz Blogosphere.


The bloggers involved happen to be political commentators and journalists, posing as bloggers because their employers allow them to write their columns under the guise of something they call, a blog. Who are they? Well, proponents of the so-called ‘left’ and the ‘right’ Phillip Adams and Gerard Henderson respectively.
I’m attracted to this pair because there’s an evident antipathy between the two, exposed quite openly in Adams column….sorry, blog….in todays Oz. I like Adams’ style in that he takes the absolute mickey out of Henderson with his tongue shoved very solidly into his cheek. It is true what he writes, that once it was clear that John Howard was lost in the political cataclysm of November 24, Henderson was one of the first of the so-called ‘righties’ to jump on the “let’s pretend solidarity” wagon and jettison Howard liberalism like the pox-ridden plague it always was. Henderson is still distancing himself from the stench of that rotting cadaver in his own blog…..oh, sorry Gerard…..column today.

Howard achieved much during his period in office and is entitled to be considered one of Australia’s most successful prime ministers – along with Bob Hawke and Menzies. Assuming, that is, that success is best judged by the ability to implement change and/or to know when to quit.Howard’s principal faults turned on his failure to arrange for a smooth leadership succession to his deputy, Peter Costello, and his apparent unwillingness to reform the Liberal Party when he had the untrammelled authority to do so.

Well, which is it, Gerard? Was he successful and a truly great PM, or was he an abject dunderhead because he failed to implement real change or known just when to quit and actually do it? I know what my thoughts are, but Gerard doesn’t seem to have made up his mind yet, despite having cuddled Kevin on election night. I guess abandoning a lifetime of ideological cyclopian dogma comes as hard to a die-hard conservative as giving away the demon drink does to an alcoholic.
I had to laugh at Adams’ writing though. Let’s be fair, you former Howard-Huggers. There’s a lot more fun in you remaining on your side of the ideological divide, than feigning solidarity with we Howard-Haters now that the witch is dead. After all, isn’t that ideological antithesis what blogging is founded upon? C’mon, have a little thought for your fellow bloggers, even if you don’t have any respect for your former political demagogues.

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