Peter
Costello must have welcomed Tony Abbott’s remarks yesterday that his
comments that he already led the country was “stating the obvious” and
referred to his economic leadership. Not.

Michelle Grattan gets it right in The Age
today. Almost. “The Treasurer is pirouetting on the thinnest ice,” she
wrote. Another “p” word might have been better. Posing or pouting.

“The
Treasurer risks being labelled disloyal by the party he hopes to lead,”
Grattan says. There is widespread disquiet in the Federal Parliamentary
Liberal Party over the Treasurer’s attack on Malcolm Turnbull.

As The Australian reports, Liberals are questioning Costello’s temperament and leadership credentials.

No-one is questioning the work he has done as Treasurer – but with the
recent examination of Paul Keating’s prime ministership in The Bulletin,
all the buzz over Loner, let alone events in NSW this week – any
aspirant to leadership should surely be acutely aware of the fine line
they always tread.