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mendacious malcolm .....

mendacious malcolm .....

Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull has also been criticised for questioning whether Mr Henry would be sacked if it was revealed he misled Treasury over advice given by regulators prior to the release of the Government's economic stimulus package.

But today in the Coalition party room meeting, one MP warned against attacking public servants.

Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner has demanded Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull withdraw the attack.  

"I call on the Leader of the Opposition to immediately repudiate these attacks by his three members on the secretary of the Treasury and to stick to his statements of October the 22nd when he indicated the secretary of the Treasury was held in his highest regard," he said. 

meanwhile ….. 

The Government will introduce legislation later today for its economic stimulus package, which will deliver one-off payments to some pensioners and families and will also triple the grant for first homeowners buying new houses.

Mr Tanner has called on the Opposition to give the package its support. "In practice the Opposition has done nothing but attack and undermine and snipe against the Government's initiatives," he said. 

"We've seen a lot of statesman-like posturing by the Leader of the Opposition at the time about how he would give all of this support but, unfortunately, we can't watch what the Leader of the Opposition says - we have to watch what he actually does." 

Rudd Hits Back At Opposition Treasury Criticism

driving Miss Ford GM Chrysler...

Leaders of the US Democratic Party, which now has a majority in both houses of Congress, have confirmed they are working on a car industry rescue plan.

Democrat congressman Barney Frank said his draft bill would include a $25bn (£17bn) loan for carmakers.

He said the money would come from the $700bn (£494bn) bail-out package already approved by Congress.

But US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said that the money was intended only for helping the financial sector.

He said on Wednesday the bail-out package had already "clearly helped stabilise" the financial system.

immature oppositionism

From Peter Hartcher SMH

As for the Opposition Leader, Malcolm Turnbull: he started out as a grown-up, offering positive suggestions and reasoned critiques, but he and his front bench are regressing. They have developed an undiscriminating anger towards the Government, incapable of telling an important issue from mere detail, falling into the old trap of becoming lost in a mindset of oppositionism.

Turnbull has wasted the opportunity of his honeymoon as leader. The risk is that against Rudd's Captain Reasonable he becomes Corporal Cranky.

The voters have noticed. As Rudd's poll numbers have soared, Turnbull's have declined to the point where the Coalition is barely any better off than it was under the hapless Brendan Nelson.

Rudd is plainly emerging as the grown-up leader the country craves. He could do with better support from his Treasurer. But Turnbull's descent into immature oppositionism starts to recall the Joseph Heller line: "When I grow up I want to be a little boy."

see toon at top... and the indiscrinimate Daleks...

t'wuz a piece of cake in Australia...

November 18, 2008

Clout Has Plunged for Automakers and Union, Too

By MICHELINE MAYNARD

DETROIT — When the leaders of the three Detroit auto companies and the United Automobile Workers union travel to Washington to make their case for a federal bailout, they will be flying into stiff headwinds of public opinion.

Thus far, much of the commentary in Washington, in the pages of major newspapers and on the Web, has been against providing financial support for the companies, which they will say they desperately need in hearings beginning on Tuesday.

The waves of criticism have been so strong that Susan Tompor, a columnist for The Detroit Free Press, was moved to write on Sunday’s front page: “I never knew Detroit was a dirty word.”

It is a remarkable shift for an industry that has long wielded considerable clout in Washington.

But that support has dwindled for many reasons, leaving backers of a bailout, including the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, and Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, having a tough time making their case that Detroit should be saved.

see toon at top...Next, a full-blown revolution in Detroit should the rescue package not be delivered?