So, Kim Beazley reckons the National Party
should leave the Coalition?

And clearly he’s put a bit of thought into
his own role in the nation’s new political
architecture: “I’ll tell
you what I would do if I was the National Party, and they don’t have the guts to
do this, I would walk straight out of the Coalition and say you’re on your own,”
he said.

Showing how advanced his thinking actually is,
he’s thinking of leaving the Coalition before he’s actually part of it, but
surely it can only be a matter of time? With the Nats self-destructing, it’s
only logical that we need a new Coalition partner. What better man to bring the
partners together than the most conservative Labor leader ever?

Beazley’s already talking like a rustic haystalk-chewin’ yokel:
“”In the days of (former
Country Party leader) Jack McEwan there would be a full blown rural rage.
What you
see now of course is a sort of … hissy fit from the National Party. Basically
they have already sold the pass. They sold the pass on Telstra, they sold it on
work choices in the bush.”

And Barnyard’s been providing
the only real opposition anyway.

Words of wisdom from Beazley to the Nats: “There is only one way for the
National Party to revive its fortunes, and it may be too late, and that is
actually to become a party again instead of an appendage.”

While the National Party’s becoming a party again, the new Coalition
partnership will no doubt require another reshuffle. After all, John Howard did
once
say “If there were a war
cabinet, I’d put him in it, but I’d be the PM.”

Oh wait, there isa
war on.

“I would just love to hear a
Coalition member of parliament say ‘I am going to go into parliament and bat for
Australia’,” said Beazley. Well, once he’s a fully kitted out Coalition batsman,
he’ll be able to score a few runs in partnership with John Howard as
well.