Re: Kevin Rudd Resigns as Foreign Minister
"I promise you this - there is no way, no way, that I will ever be part of a stealth attack on a sitting prime minister elected by the people," he said.
"We all know that what happened then was wrong and it must never happen again."
The attack upon character is thinly veiled, and it's raising the issue of legitimacy.
He also talks at length about his lack of support from Gillard, the only purpose of mentioning this is to increase sympathy for himself and potentially increase his own power - which is an attack. He could have just said in resignation 'I want to end confusion, speculation, show support for the government etc'. A Costello like retirement. He left a leadership challenge wide open, which is also an attack.
The video and public criticism by crean et al, are arguably deserved, depending on what he has been doing privately to undermine the government. Burke remarks "Mr Rudd [has been] campaigning for the leadership for months and said it was "the worst kept secret in Canberra". How were they supposed to stop that privately?
Gillard's team couldn't simply dismiss Rudd, couldn't privately thwart his campaigning, couldn't withstand the constant media leadership speculation, what can you do other than public criticism?
I was only justifying Swan's response to Rudd's speech, disregard prior attacks by other ministers; Rudd attacked Gillard in his speech in the following ways:
"I promise you this - there is no way, no way, that I will ever be part of a stealth attack on a sitting prime minister elected by the people," he said.
"We all know that what happened then was wrong and it must never happen again."
The attack upon character is thinly veiled, and it's raising the issue of legitimacy.
He also talks at length about his lack of support from Gillard, the only purpose of mentioning this is to increase sympathy for himself and potentially increase his own power - which is an attack. He could have just said in resignation 'I want to end confusion, speculation, show support for the government etc'. A Costello like retirement. He left a leadership challenge wide open, which is also an attack.
Their existing position was untenable. There was no way they could go to the next election with the current ministry. Largely it's the fault of the media beat up.
The video and public criticism by crean et al, are arguably deserved, depending on what he has been doing privately to undermine the government. Burke remarks "Mr Rudd [has been] campaigning for the leadership for months and said it was "the worst kept secret in Canberra". How were they supposed to stop that privately?
Gillard's team couldn't simply dismiss Rudd, couldn't privately thwart his campaigning, couldn't withstand the constant media leadership speculation, what can you do other than public criticism?
