Man Arrested!

[IQS.RLOW]

Yep she's just a prop, you were right.

She must have known that she was never going to make it as a high class hooker so she took the next natural progression. ALP backbenchers wife.

[Schu]

Yes, I agree, Lucas. She too had an opportunity to do the right thing in this and failed, and I think she was quite happy to enjoy the fruits of his fraud.

I think she is a former media advisor. If she was giving him advice and endorsing his strategy then clearly she wasn't very good.

Unfortunately IQS.RLOW the press in Canberra and the political reporters are all dependent on politics for their livelihood. So they won't go after people as hard as they should; if they do then they won't get any information or stories in the future. Indeed I think the only reason Thomson was gone after so hard by Fairfax is because it got "personal" for them.

I think that the impact of the Thomson saga on the ALP is under-appreciated. I think there was at least a proportion of people who were disgusted with the ALP hanging on to him for numbers reasons. And more than that, the saga rendered Australian politics farcical for months. Nobody was discussing policy; instead it was all about Thomson (and then Slipper) and the numbers. Who can forget Pyne and Abbott racing to leave the chamber when Thomson crossed the floor? (It was hilarious and I did think kudos to them for standing by what they'd said about his vote but it still made a mockery of Parliament.)

The ALP should have put pressure on him to resign in the first place. If they had they would at least have retained a bit of respect in the matter and they wouldn't have turned Parliament into a circus.

Having said that, I don't think the ALP protected Thomson just for the numbers. He would have a lot of dirt on a lot of people and he's the kind of character who would drag down anyone he could if he thought it would save him by deflecting attention. I suspect that they had to put a few things in place before they could cut him loose.

[Schu]

I don't think it was Gillard that Thomson had information about.

Gillard, whatever he faults or history, was not a Thomson-like character and didn't and wouldn't have engaged in the same sort of Union/cookie jar/extracurricular activity shennanigans that he did. I am not saying there weren't questionable elements in Gillard's past, but I doubt anything that Thomson would have been able to use.

Gillard was dependent upon the support of the people who helped her knife Rudd. One in particular. Indeed, it was him switching his support away from Gillard and back to Rudd that meant Rudd won the challenge. He has far more in common with Thomson.

[IQS.RLOW]

I don't think it was Gillard that Thomson had information about.

Gillard, whatever he faults or history, was not a Thomson-like character and didn't and wouldn't have engaged in the same sort of Union/cookie jar/extracurricular activity shennanigans that he did. I am not saying there weren't questionable elements in Gillard's past, but I doubt anything that Thomson would have been able to use.

Gillard was dependent upon the support of the people who helped her knife Rudd. One in particular. Indeed, it was him switching his support away from Gillard and back to Rudd that meant Rudd won the challenge. He has far more in common with Thomson.

I think you would be correct here. Thomsom wouldn't have had anything on Gillard herself, but he would have had plenty on those that either backed her or didn't and this was probably used to everyone's advantage, except the taxpayers. Not to mention that the AWU and the Ludwig clan considered her their hand puppet.

[Rorschach]

Backing Thomson was all about the numbers

[Schu]

Backing Thomson was all about the numbers

I don't think that makes sense.

Gillard, for all her faults, isn't an idiot. It was obvious to people far less experienced than her that allowing Thomson to remain part of the ALP was going to cause problems. They were always going to have to do something, which is what happened in the end. In the meantime, it provided endless fodder for the media and the Liberal Party, at best distracting the ALP from policy and at worse making a mockery of them. It also damaged ALP support from the Independents. So why wait to do the inevitable and suffer those consequences?

The only reason I can see for that is if there was something else in the way of them immediately disassociating themselves from Thomson.

[Phil E. Buster]

This Thomson is a very short glass of water. Not one boat did he stop and not one witch did he ditch. But to his credit he was full of surprises but no tax did he axe, and not one budgie smuggled. He took a bride from the brothel and Tony the tall glass of water who says what he does and does what he says would never surprise like that. He is way too tall a glass for that.

SHAME LEFTARDS SHAME.

[Neferti]

Better a tall glass of water than one big glass of SPASTIC.

[IQS.RLOW]

This Thomson is a very short glass of water. Not one boat did he stop and not one witch did he ditch. But to his credit he was full of surprises but no tax did he axe, and not one budgie smuggled. He took a bride from the brothel and Tony the tall glass of water who says what he does and does what he says would never surprise like that. He is way too tall a glass for that.

SHAME LEFTARDS SHAME.

Do you somehow think you are amusing Karnal?
Do you think your schtick brings even the smallest smile to anyone's face?

[Schu]

and for the grand finale after Thompson Gate, Kevin the Dudd steps up to lay the final nail in the ALP coffin.

You mean that Shorten realised that his best path to leadership was to reinstate Rudd, who would be even more likely to lose the election than Gillard and who would resign the leadership after the election, thereby allowing Shorten an opportunity to take the leadership and a likely chance at victory given all his endorsers within the ALP.

To be honest I'd almost say that Shorten backed Gillard to knife Rudd precisely to pave the way for his leadership. I wondered if he expected the ALP to lose that election and then he could swoop in and take the leadership because Gillard would be untenable. It certainly seems that she was knifed by more than just Rudd supporters during her tenure.