NP - Might the US Be Next?

[David Morris]

http://crookedtimber.org/2007/11/30/the-world-turned-upside-down-down-under/

The world turned upside down, down under
Posted by John Quiggin

Political events in Australia have been moving so fast, no one has
really caught up. A week ago, Labor looked very likely to win the
election (held last Saturday) and there seemed a good chance that
Liberal (= pro-business right) Prime Minister John Howard would lose
his own seat. Those things duly happened, and that seemed to be about
as much as we could expect or hope for. Instead, there has been a
meltdown of spectacular proportions on the losing side.


First, Howard's deputy and longstanding rival Peter Costello
announced, contrary to most expectations, that he would not serve as
leader of the opposition and was looking to get out of politics and
into business where he could make some real money. Then Mark Vaile the
leader of the Liberals' coalition partner the National (= rural
sector) Party decided he should spend more time with his family.

And there was more to come. Foreign Minister and Mark Steyn fan,
Alexander Downer decided he would also head for the backbench (it
seems likely that he and Vaile will face a lot of trouble for a deal
in which a government-established monopoly paid Saddam Hussein
kickbacks, out of Iraqi Oil-for-Food money, to buy Australian wheat,
right up to the day Australian forces took part in the 2003 invasion).

The last prominent conservative left standing at this point, Health
Minister, Tony Abbott, announced he would run for the party leadership
but withdrew when it became apparent he didn't have the numbers. That
left the Liberals with a choice between two ambitious, but largely
ideology-free, political adventurers, Brendan Nelson and Malcolm
Turnbull.

Turnbull, much the more able of the two, offered a complete
repudiation of the culture-war policies of the Howard era, proposing
ratification of the Kyoto protocol, an apology to indigenous
Australians, support for repeal of the anti-union Workchoices package.
He has also been a leading advocate of an Australian republic. Nelson,
who ended up winning by three votes, has announced support for Kyoto,
and partial support for Workchoices repeal, while opposing an apology.
Even this much would have seemed unthinkable a week ago

After a thoroughly uninspiring election campaign, characterised by
lots of me-too promises and fence-sitting, we have ended up with a
political scene that is utterly transformed, with the previously
dominant hardline right not merely out of government but a
marginalised minority within the opposition. It remains to be seen
whether Labor can make anything of this. No one is expecting much in
the short term, but suddenly there seems to be room to move, and the
prospect of several terms in office in which to do it.