Mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the biggest leaker in the Labor Party of them all

Despite scraping all the barnacles off the good ship ALP, it still seems to be leaking like a sieve.

Mark Latham in yesterday's Australian Financial Review:

I AM tempted to write that the only Labor leader Rudd has never leaked against was himself, but technically this is not correct. Rudd chronicled much of his prime ministership with briefings to his friend Peter Hartcher, of The Sydney Morning Herald. Hartcher wrote a series of accounts of the internal workings of the government that, in sourcing and disposition, could only have come from Rudd. (Laurie) Oakes and Hartcher have broken many stories detrimental to (Julia) Gillard and Labor. Each has a common link: Rudd. In a court of law, using the reasonable person test for the assessment of evidence, he would be convicted of leaking. For the purposes of political judgment, the case against him is overwhelming. In the SMH on Friday, Hartcher reported ALP officials had asked Rudd to campaign in marginal seats in Queensland. No such approach was ever made. In 2003, Oakes corrected his report about me on air the next night. Herald readers are still waiting for Hartcher to do the same.

Not naming names but pointing fingers. Rudd on Wednesday on Radio National's Late Night Live with Phillip Adams:

IT'S pretty clear from my own statements the other day when the questions about the Laurie Oakes story came up that I said my practice is not to comment on the deliberations and processes of the cabinet. I said that in response to a question concerning the Oakes story and consistent with that, plainly, the position I've adopted is one you honour the cabinet processes. So the source isn't from me. I see Mr Tanner had things to say today.

Return of the ratf . . ker? Andrew Murray in The West Australian yesterday:

THE Labor culture that has been on display is not one WA warms to. Kevin Rudd's televised downfall included images of swift political brutality and of parliamentary and union factional heavies in action. The election campaign has seen continuing disunity.

Bad judgment is still on display: how can Labor contemplate replacing the very able Stephen Smith as foreign minister with a man who calls WA's best international customers ratf . . kers?

Phillip Coorey in The Sydney Morning Herald yesterday:

THE cab driver in Cairns had swallowed the spin from the Coalition that Labor and the Greens would govern in cahoots and ruin the country with a Greens agenda.

Could Coorey's gullible cab driver be responsible for The Australian Financial Review's editorial yesterday?

THE possibility of a hung parliament - a minority government dependant on the support of independents or Greens in the lower house - cannot calmly be ruled out.

The latter would be a nightmare scenario for Australia. With the balance of power, (the Greens') dogmatic vision of small Australia at the mercy of unions, regulators and "stakeholders" would reinforce the worst of both Labor and the Coalition, create uncertainty for business and investors, and penalise ordinary workers and shareholders.

This is not an outcome voters should lightly entertain.

Fatal attraction. Coorey won't be spun, but he's vulnerable to sparkle:

SINCE taking control of her campaign last weekend, she has stepped up the work rate and the appearance. Her eyes still sparkle. "Personally, I'm feeling enthusiastic and determined. I'm feeling full of energy," she says over a snack.

Why no furore? Greens Senator Scott Ludlam December 3, 2008:

I WOULD just like to question why Martin Ferguson is sitting on this issue like a hen trying to hatch an egg. The Northern Territory elected the Labor Party. We were led to believe that the nuclear waste thing would be all overturned and overruled, and at this moment we are extremely disappointed. How many times do we have to say no? No means no.