Tim Blair’s blog today draws attention to an article by Mungo Maccallum from 28 November 2011. Julia had just pulled off the Slipper masterstroke. Mungo wrote …
this was political stupidity of an almost suicidal dimension.
So you can see Mungo’s crystal ball was doing OK.
Well no, actually this was Mungo deriding Tony Abbott for not taking better care to hang on to the errant member. A fuller quote tells all …
It should by now have been obvious that his loyalty to the Coalition was at best negotiable, but neither Abbott nor anyone else made any serious attempt to win him back; on the contrary, the former Howard minister Mal Brough emerged to threaten his preselection in Fisher, with the open support of Howard and, it appeared, the tacit endorsement of Abbott.
In a hung parliament in which every vote was vital, this was political stupidity of an almost suicidal dimension. In contrast, Labor was cosseting every member, even Craig Thomson, the former union official under a police investigation. Slippery Pete was allowed to slip away.
Bad call, Maccallum, bad call, and it’s not as though Mungo is unaware of Slipper’s proclivities, he goes on to say …
This, of course, is where Slipper is vulnerable: he is neither good-humoured nor personable, and even before becoming a serial rat, he was carrying a lot of political baggage. Julia Gillard can only hope that he can survive the barrage of mud which will undoubtedly be flung at him …
Ain’t hindsight wonderful.
