I can’t remember his name, but I think Rudd’s media minder is that Canadian bloke who used to work for Bob Carr. Absolutely ruthless and comes down very hard on dissenting stories (eg the dispute about Rudd’s childhood from SMH reporters). He is, of course, absolutely media-savvy.

Chris Curtis. On the split and the recent passing of the great Kim Beazley senior:

He had a great quote about the Victorian Left (which along with FE (’Joe’) Chamberlain) controlled the ALP Federal Executive in the 60s.

“It has the Midas Touch for failure, to the point of sheer genius.”

“He is the father of three children and five grandchildren.”

I think they could have phrased it better, especially in light of recent events.

Pay particular attention to Ian McCaffrey, Adrian Ford, David Simpson and David Stow.

Ian looks like he’s a missing persons photo and the others just… yeah.

Most ungracious. I thought Kevin avoided without heavy handedness Kerry’s good try to have him show any of the cards, though Kevin chucked out the odd dot point (university funding, climate change)

Kevin this time said ‘under employed’ diplomat.

http://www.cecaust.com.au/main.asp?sub=election&id=waindex.htm