Even though we all knew what the outcome was going to be going into the meeting today, I'm still of the opinion that these ALP power brokers are full of shit for picking Julia Gillard over Kevin Rudd. In the last 5 days of blogging (and energetic commenting over at Facebook), we kind of figured out that these people would much rather face electoral oblivion than work under Kevin Rudd. That it wasn't just Nicola Rocks-in-her-head Roxon that had this asinine opinion,it was 71 of them, plus Julia Gillard who naturally voted for herself. It would have been funny had she voted for Kevin, just to rub it in, but... no. there is no humour in politics.
I know I'm being harsh when I call these 71 members of caucus assholes but in the past I have actually been quite generous when it came to ALP leadership issues. I didn't think much of Kim Beazley and was dismayed by his willingness to embrace anti-terror legislation as if tougher-than-Johnny was going to get him over the line. Not a great moment in progressive side of politics, but ... I voted for him. Simon Crean was another leader I felt iffy about, what with his perennial inability to get some kind of narrative going against the tidal wave of conservative patter coming from the Liberals. He was like a tongue-tied mute when you needed a bard. Then there was Mark Latham - less experienced, brash, scary, violent (but exciting if you ask me) who the faction bosses hobbled on the way to the polls. I sure as hell voted for Kevin'07; and as a side issue which is what State politics is, I voted for Bob Carr, Morris Iemma and maybe even Barry Unsworth way back when. And each and every time, I didn't really question the progressive cause, nor did I stop to consider the weird bedfellows I had in rabid socialist unionists and former communists and former student politicians and even people with whom I disagreed outright.
But here's the thing: I could not bring myself to vote for Kristina Kenneally, and I couldn't bring myself to vote for Julia Gillard in 2010 because I just couldn't take the machinations that brought these people to the top of their resepective totem poles. I've wondered if this was because I was some kind of political misogynist, but no, I would have voted for Joan Krrner and Dr. Carmen Lawrence and Anna Bligh if they were in my State. (Had I been American I would have voted for Hillary Clinton over anybody except Obama). But I drew the line with these two.
What they have in common is this: Mark Arbib did the politicking to swap leaders to install both these women when it was unnecessary to do so in both instances, and was in fact detrimental to my trust of the ALP. I've been pondering about my rage and really, it comes down to Mark Arbib and his apparatchik ways.
So it is with great pleasure today to find that Arbib has resigned from Parliament.
Senator Arbib - often described as one of the "faceless men" for his role in helping remove Kevin Rudd as PM in 2010 - described his shock resignation as a "gesture of goodwill" to the party to help it heal.
Senator Arbib, who also served as Sports Minister, said that he was also resigning from the Parliament for family reasons.
He said that after he was promoted to the ministry late last year, his daughter cried because it meant he would spend more time at work.
"Don't take the job, Dad," she said.
Unlike a lower house seat, his resignation from the Senate will not force a by-election. The NSW Parliament will choose a replacement from the Labor Party.
Senator Arbib said that the past week in politics had been one of the "most difficult" weeks in Labor Party history.
He said that leadership ballots were "difficult complex and emotional" events.
Senator Arbib said that he believed Prime Minister Julia Gillard could and would win the next election but it required a commitment from the caucus to put recent events behind them.
"What it requires is professionalism," he said.
Senator Arbib said that healing the party's scars required more than talk.
"It requires more than words, it requires action," he said.
"Everyone has a responsibility, all of us have to play a part. And that includes me."
It's a real bummer that Kevin couldn't persuade his colleagues to give him another shot. I won't vote for Julia Gillard - ever - so that is just that. Yet, it is some kind of consolation that Mark Arbib has been sent packing. Oh, he'll still collect that big pension that pollies get to pull down, but it is best for the ALP that he be sent packing. Nobody's going to convince me this man was an asset for progressive politics in this country.
Good riddance.
Not Done With Despising
All this has lowered my estimation of these people in caucus, especially the ones who voted for Gillard in the face of the numbers. They're dicing the future of Australia with Tony Abbott. Which is why I am not contemplating a donkey vote at the next election. If these people are willing to dice the future of Australia with Tony Abbott, then I'm entitled to do the same with my vote.
Machiavelli said contempt was corrosive. A leader can be loved, or feared, but the option is not there to be held in contempt and unfortunately what we have here is a situation where I now hold these people in contempt. I don't think I'm alone on that little count. The tenor of people who were hoping Kevin Rudd might have persuaded a few more people are particularly frutrated today.
Here's an example - Sam deBrito:
I tell ya, every time I'm about to get well and truly sick of Kevin Rudd's two-year-long temper tantrum, someone on Mount Hubris reminds me just how out of touch much of the Labour Caucus is and how they'll happily convince you piss is Perrier depending on the day.
Tell me Brendan, Greg, and Ms Gillard; if the ballot for the Labor leadership is not a celebrity poll why the hell did you get rid of Rudd 20 months ago?
The rationalisation since has been, as O'Connor repeated Sunday, that it was "about who should lead the nation. Getting things done and doing things in the nation's interest is not always immediately popular but it's very important."
And I thought it was about Kevin Rudd's plunging opinion polls back in 2010 when you cut his throat?
Since then we've had all the words in the world telling us what a hard man Rudd was to work for, that he was a nightmare boss, but you know what?
WE DON'T CARE.
We have nightmare bosses out here in the real world and we don't get to sack them when they drive us batshit.
We don't get paid $300K like ministers do either (plus allowances!)
We don't have any of your power or influence, except for one itty bitty thing: our vote.
And you ignored this, you took it away from us back in 2010 when you sacked a democratically elected Prime Minister - in a process some might uncharitably liken to a popularity contest - and we haven't forgotten that.
And if that doesn't sound angry enough to you, here's Peter Hartcher:
The people consistently prefer Kevin Rudd to Julia Gillard as Labor leader by a factor of about two to one. But Labor has gone the other way by a factor of more than two to one. For a party that is on a steady trajectory to electoral defeat, it was an extraordinary act of steely resolve. Or suicidal madness.
Under the Gillard leadership, Labor lost its parliamentary majority and then proceeded consistently to register the lowest primary vote on record.
And the only polling figures to shift in the past week beyond the margin of error was Gillard’s approval rating.
Yet the vote of 71 to 31 for Gillard suggests that Rudd, on net, has failed to win over any votes since last week. Even more remarkably, he has failed to win any votes since losing the leadership 20 months ago.
Some names have moved from one column to the other on the caucus voting lists, but, on a net basis, the caucus has shown itself to be deeply entrenched in defending Gillard.
This is a violation of one of the customary laws of leadership challenges – that the challenger carries momentum.
Mr. Hartcher's trying to be fair where perhaps between the lines you can almost see him gritting his teeth. Something's gone seriously wrong on the progressive side of politics, and this fiasco didn't come close to fixing it.
Alone, Alone, Alone
Just so I'm making myself absolutely clear once more, I will not be voting for the ALP with Julia Gillard as the Prime Minister at the next Federal election. But I won't be voting for the Libs or the Nats. I won't even vote Green because they support Sea Shepherd. I won't vote for an independent, without knowing what they stand for, but I don't imagine I'll find such an independent I can identify with.
It's actually a lonely feeling to know this much, that I've cast myself adrift from all the mainstream options. I'm all alone out here without an option.
So the Donkey is suddenly looking like an eminently respectable candidate.
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