Things that unexpectedly remind one of Mark Latham

You know you’re an Aussie poli-tragic when an infographic which could for most people in the world have happily been linked to in the Whimsy thread just gets you thinking about suckholes and the US-Australian alliance (isn’t Bob Carr surprisingly quiet?).

A line of fans in stormtrooper costumes dancing the conga at an unknown convention10 Ways a Conga Line is Exactly Like a Cult

Politics is really bland at the moment. The soundbites are so focus-grouped that you just don’t get any inventive invective any more.

Image source: original source unknown, found illustrating a forum discussion via Google images. Couldn’t resist it.



Categories: fun & hobbies, language, Politics

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7 replies

  1. For some reason, even though I was thinking about Bob Carr visiting Washington while I was writing it, I wrote Anglo-Australian instead of US-Australian at first and didn’t catch it until just after I hit the “Publish” button. Oops.

  2. Heh. I can’t recall exactly when Mark Latham came out with that line, but I know that my husband and I chortled over it, and lamented over the comparative blandness of NZ politics. No one over here in NZ has nearly such a capacity for glorious invective.

    • Deborah – Latham was no Paul Keating, but he did have his moments.

      • P.S. My favourite piece of impromptu political banter still remains with Gough circa 1972:

        Heckler: Gough, hey Gough! What about abortion, Gough?
        Whitlam: In your case madam, I would make it retrospective.

  3. This is my favourite Gough quote

    When Sir Winton Turnbull [who represented a large rural seat] was raving and ranting on the adjournment and shouted: “I am a Country member”. I interjected “I remember”. He could not understand why, for the first time in all the years he had been speaking in the House, there was instant and loud applause from both sides.

  4. I was unexpectedly reminded of Latham when watching Nick Broomfield’s doco on Sarah Palin (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1965264/). She’s painted as the type to view people as either enemies or friends, with the latter shifting into the former category in a heartbeat, often with little cause.
    I just couldn’t help recalling Latham’s beefs* with pretty much everyone from Whitlam (and Joel Fitzgibbon?) down. I recalled how he wrote people up in his book as voting against him in the party room – even after they showed him physical evidence that their vote went his way.
    *Incongruous, but I’m keeping it!

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