There is renewed snap, crackle and
pop today over the AWB affair/scandal/gate. As Henry predicted and Dennis Shanahan pointed out last
week, the ALP has done its best to distract itself from the main game on this
one and the promised fire and brimstone has come out more feather and lukewarm
dishwater.

At the risk of becoming the biblical
sounding brass, Henry would like to gently clear his throat and say again in a
calm and unobtrusive voice, that it is a great pity we have such a seemingly
toothless opposition at present.

There is enough smoke around this
one that it surely can’t be that hard to convince the public that the implied
fire was started by the gummint. Henry finds it astonishing that, while the
majority of people acknowledge a belief that key figures in the Coalition at
least tacitly approved of the metaphorical shovelling of Australian dollars onto
the back of virtual trucks in Iraq (see here and here), the same people have to
a significant degree declined to move their support to the ALP.

Meanwhile, the PM continues the old
bait and switch tactics that have served him so well. Just when Cossie finally
looks like he might be getting on board the Tax Debate wagon (and to the extent
that Henry’s exhortations along these lines have helped – we’re glad to have
been of service), the PM has entered the debate this morning – helpfully
pinching some of Cossie’s thunder and – along with his statements on Muslim
fashion – doing a typically polished job of diverting potential nastiness with
another squeaky toy to distract the opposition, who at the moment appear about
as focused as a mini-bus full of ritalin-deprived kindergarten bullies on a
raspberry cordial binge.

Read the full article at Henry
Thornton.