It’s been Turnbull with a bullet this week in the Rehame (ugh) most mentioned charts.

It’s Malcolm Turnbull with a bullet – several bullets. He shot his mouth off, shot himself in the foot and shot up the charts.

Yes, Mr T is the smash hit of last week’s Canberra Top 40. He leapt up 95 – count’em – places to trail just behind the two party leaders and Mr Two Minute Warning himself, Foreign Minister Alexander Downer, in media monitor Rehame’s list of mentions our pols received last week.

Turnbull is our winner because he isn’t even an MP. His only possible rival is Tasmanian Labor backbencher Harry Quick who was propelled an amazing 136 places from 144 to eight after vigorously putting the boot into Richard Butler. Labor is still on a roll with the Free Trade Agreement, with Stephen Conroy coming in at number 11.

However, this week’s number two, Mark Latham, should make sure that top ten newcomer Craig Emerson doesn’t cost him the number one spot come election day. Emerson is there as Shadow Industrial Relations Minister – and with the FTA out of the way, Labor’s industrial relations policy and backward approach on workplace agreements has handed the Prime Minister plenty of material for a scare campaign.

The PM probably had them practising in the Government Party Room last week. “Repeat after me: ‘If Labor is in power in every state and every territory and in Canberra the unions will run riot’.”

Who’s hot, who’s not: The Rehame Top 40 Pols

Rank Name Mentions Previous mentions Last week
1 John Howard 5163 5009 1
2 Mark Latham 3141 3670 2
3 Alexander Downer 580 911 3
4 Malcolm Turnbull 538 17 99
5 Peter Costello 527 374 9
6 Bob Brown 486 403 6
7 Kim Beazley 364 388 8
8 Harry Quick 290 5 144
8 Tony Abbott 290 486 5
10 Craig Emerson 271 12 111
11 Stephen Conroy 260 350 11
12 John Anderson 251 496 4
13 Tanya Plibersek 187 51 51
14 Mark Vaile 183 373 10
15 De Anne Kelly 174 54 46
16 Amanda Vanstone 164 93 27
17 Con Sciacca 150 14 105
18 Kevin Rudd 146 103 22
19 Warren Truss 139 207 14
20 Lindsay Tanner 131 33 70
21 Andrew Bartlett 121 115 19
22 Peter King 117 102 23
23 Jenny Macklin 115 53 49
24 Kevin Andrews 113 48 53
25 Robert Hill 112 396 7
26 Chris Ellison 107 100 24
27 Brendan Nelson 106 240 13
28 Warren Entsch 103 38 62
29 Helen Coonan 97 99 25
30 Eric Abetz 93 20 92
30 Philip Ruddock 93 132 16
32 Natasha Stott Despoja 87 55 44
33 Ian Campbell 86 72 33
34 Kerry Nettle 83 32 73
35 Wayne Swan 82 108 21
36 Sharman Stone 81 61 40
36 Tony Windsor 81 43 57
38 Alby Schultz 75 26 82
39 Jim Lloyd 72 37 66
40 Larry Anthony 67 81 30

Christian Kerr can be contacted at christian @crikey.com.au