On Malcolm (and Peta and Tony)

I don't have much sympathy for Malcolm Turnbull, but this quote about Abbott and Credlin is pretty amusing:

“Peta has always strongly denied that she and Tony were lovers. But if they were, that would have been the most unremarkable aspect of their friendship.”

For a couple not having an affair, it is pretty hilarious that so many people - on their own side of politics - found it hard to believe that they were not lovers.  Remember this?:

According to an extract published in The Australian, Senator Fierravanti-Wells went to Mr Abbott the night before the failed first attempt to unseat him last February.

She told the then-prime minister he had to remove Ms Credlin, arguing colleagues considered her responsible for many of the government's problems, and they were prepared to take out their frustrations on him.

Senator Fierravanti-Wells is quoted in the book as telling Mr Abbott "politics is about perceptions".

"Rightly or wrongly, the perception is that you are sleeping with your chief of staff. That's the perception, and you need to deal with it.

"I am here because I care about you, and I care about your family, and I feel I need to tell you the truth, the brutal truth. This is what your colleagues really think."

According to the book, Mr Abbott responded calmly and said the rumours were not true.

This must make Credlin's list of Liberal politicians she dislikes pretty long.

Even other people within the party hated her style:

Tony Abbott’s chief of staff, Peta Credlin, has been described as a “horsewoman of the apocalypse” as further leaks emerge from within the Liberal party executive.

ABC’s Four Corners program has obtained a text message sent from federal Liberal party treasurer Philip Higginson to a senior party figure, in which he describes Credlin as the “horsewoman of the apocalypse” with “black robes flowing”.

The text message continues: “I do hope you can negotiate the removal of Credlin. That would be a huge win in itself,” the ABC reports.

Everyone can see that there have been, shall we say, less than laudatory aspects of Turnbull's personality over the years; but the condemnation of Peta's has many more vouching for it.   And poor old Tony ended up its political victim.   Funny old world...