The ten year itch. “I scratch myself daily”, the PM told the ABC’s Jim Middleton last
night when asked how he felt on the eve of a decade in the top job. Early in
the day the PM was spinning discs on Southern Cross Radio in Brissie,
playing Dire Straits’ Walk of Life. Lucky, all things considered, he didn’t
choose I Touch Myself.

Mr Doyle has my full support. A Victorian Liberal
leadership spill
might be off – but Spring Street sources say enterprising members of
the fourth
estate are ringing round staffers of reluctant challenger Ted Baillieu
asking for confirmation that he has openly described Robert Doyle as an
idiot. Where might
they have got that idea from – and who might want the story to get
around?

Labour pain. Why is the ACTU so quiet at the thought of losing one of
their assistant secretaries, Richard Marles, to the Commonwealth Parliament as
Member of Corio? Because secretary Greg Combet things he’s useless – that he’s
only interested in Labor factional politics – but hasn’t been able to get rid
of him directly because of factional ties? Surely not. This must just be more
of the work of those standover merchants, thugs
and sleaze bags disrupting the workers’ struggle.

Deja vu.
Everyone round Parliament House keeps saying – isn’t the Kevin Andrews
Victorian ALP/union sh*t we carried yesterday bizarrely similar to Noodle
Nation?

Deja vu II.
“Labor frontbenchers who lose preselection battles could
spark a reshuffle of Kim Beazley’s front bench,” Dennis Shanahan writes in The
Australian today. Didn’t we report that on Tuesday?

The other ten year anniversary. 2 March is the tenth anniversary of the election of Greens
leader Bob Brown to the Senate. They’ve been ten rather good years. He points
out in a rather cheeky media release that he has outlasted ten other party leaders: “Meg
Lees, Cheryl Kernot, Natasha Stott-Despoja, Brian Grieg, Andrew Bartlett,
Pauline Hanson, Len Harris (One Nation), Kim Beazley (first time round), Simon
Crean and Mark Latham have all been and gone during that time.” And, he adds,
“There’s no speculation about me standing at next year’s election. I can’t
wait.”

Poetry
corner. Road safety, tragically, has become an issue in the Tasmanian election
campaign. The Greens are calling for seatbelts on school buses,
while our anonymous poll poet laureate says:

Bumpy bits on our roads are a curse

And as we all watch they get worse

We’ve also got holes

And plenty of poles

It needs cash from the Government purse.

Meanwhile,
preference deals are being done in SA,
as Democrat David Winderlich observes:

Family First and the Greens-hardly plastic.

Their policies can seem quite drastic.

But the preference deals.

May soon reveal.

That their principles are quite elastic.

And
here’s a warning of things to come. Michael Darby, contender for Liberal preselection
for the vital NSW Liberal seat of Manly, is a professional bush poet.
You have been cautioned.

Recipe of the Day. To celebrate on this most auspicious of days, bake a tenth birthday spiced chocolate and almond cake and crack open a tinnie. And while you’re at it, why not send an ecard to thank Mr Howard for the ladders of opportunity.

Send your snippets to chistian@crikey.com.au