More pouting from Pete – or Pete’s Proxies – with lots of briefing about Dollar Sweetie in The Australiantoday. There’s also an attempt by the tetchy treasurer to claim the government’s economic record as All My Own Work in the Sydney Morning Heraldas well as a warning he isn’t going to back off.

Michelle Grattan has done an excellent job playing Mum today in The Age.
“Peter should calm down. John should think about a smooth transition,”
she writes. Still, there’s less sulking and more substance in Peter
Costello’s arguments today – and about time, too. Australians hate
sooks, and that’s what he’s looked like since Saturday.

What he
now has to do is capitalise on the massive advantages his portfolio
give him. Being treasurer gives him a finger in every pie. He can do
more than talk about the dollars and cents of government decisions. He
must stress the whys – the reasoning behind government spending and how
it benefits Australians. Is it too late? There’ve been plenty of
sceptical emails. One subscriber quotes back yesterday’s Crikey Daily:

“Compare and contrast with the sages – Paul Kelly and
Laurie Oakes – holding forth today on what could loosely be described
as Howard’s Demise. While it’s true that the Gallery likes leadership
stories better than elections – you don’t need to go on the road for
five weeks – what Kelly and Oakes say often becomes fact.”

Surely
you were not referring to that well known “liberal” Paul Kelly who not
many moons ago was extolling the virtues of one Mark Latham?

Ouch!