Crikey

It had to happen. Overnight a Facebook group has appeared called I won’t be voting for a drunken p-rvert 07.

Rudd shouldn’t worry, however. Think Hawkie. Think John Gorton. Australians seem to be phlegmatic about their politicians. As long as you stay clear of Jim and Juni territory it’s normally fine.

It’s not as if he’s done a Ross Cameron – or claimed he was on a Gladstone-style mission to sell his wife’s employment services to ladies of the night so they could save themselves from a life of vice.

Canberra lobbyist David Kindon observes of strippergate in his newsletter Advocacy Update this morning:

The effect of this on voter sentiment has yet to be measured, but it is likely that many other sitting and retired federal politicians will be silently squirming over the revelation. Any point scoring against Mr Rudd, will no doubt unlock a Pandora’s box of similar errors of judgement, perhaps even by some sitting Cabinet Members.

Absolutely. It may be hard to imagine in this day and age, but the parties of Treasurer John Howard were once much talked about affairs. Invitations to these crazy nights were highly sought after.

If any members of cabinet have been throwing buckets of dirt, they may find that they’ve got splattered in the process.

Any day now we may be reading allegations about their spouse’s liaisons – and they may be handling questions about the exact nature of their relationships with some of their ministerial colleagues’ staff.