Comments on: Come in Spinner: is there anything original in politics?

By: db

db — Tue, 27 Nov 2012 04:49:21 +0000

For some reason I gained the impression that Tony Abbott’s “Mad Monk” nickname was from his student politics days. I’d heard it was due to a combination of referring to his time in the seminary and his Rasputin-like pursuit of several young ladies. Unfortunately I can’t remember where I heard that from so it may have even been a joke.

By: Andybob

Andybob — Mon, 26 Nov 2012 14:01:50 +0000

I don’t recall the poison anecdote being attributed to Menzies. There was a rather good one in a similar vein, of Menzies at a rally. A woman yelled out: ‘I wouldn’t vote for ya if you were the Archangel Gabriel’. He responded: ‘Madam, if I were the Archangel Gabriel, you wouldn’t be in my electorate’. No idea if it was original.

By: Bill Hilliger

Bill Hilliger — Mon, 26 Nov 2012 07:35:21 +0000

@steve777 you have high expectations of some that work for the Australian, Gerard Henderson wouldn’t have the intellect to join the dots of mad monk thingy: Abbott = head of a monastery.

By: Peter Fuller

Peter Fuller — Mon, 26 Nov 2012 06:37:56 +0000

Noel,
I was disappointed to learn (quite recently) that a Fred Daly remark at the height of the 1975 political crisis was not original.
When Gough W. was enduring a torrid time at the hands of the media, Fred observed that if Gough was to walk across Lake Burley Griffin to Civic, it would be reported with a breathless headline “Whitlam can’t swim.”
Almost 40 years later, it was drawn to my attention that Richard Nixon had made an equivalent complaint about the nature of reporting about him - after news of Watergate broke.

By: Steve777

Steve777 — Mon, 26 Nov 2012 04:35:57 +0000

I remember Gerard Henderson once condemning Tony Abbott’s nickname of ‘the Mad Monk’ as a disgraceful sectarian jibe. I think it much more likely that the appellation is a typical Aussie play on Mr Abbott’s surname i.e. Abbot = head of a monastery, together with a comment on his often volatile temperament in the years before he became Leader of the Opposition.