It’s 11 years tomorrow since
Alexander Downer made his “the things that batter” gag. That was the
beginning of the end of his leadership of the Liberal Party. Tony
Abbott, however, seems set to keep his job as Health Minister despite
his comments about John Brogden.

Michael Gordon gets it about right in The Age
today: “Tony Abbott has pleaded guilty as charged to insensitivity,
crassness and, yes, stupidity. But since when have any of these been
hanging offences? The Health Minister has never been strong on bedside
manner, and his response to John Brogden’s fall from grace and
attempted suicide was, sad to say, no exception… If dropping one
insensitive line at a party fund-raiser is a sackable offence, both
sides had better watch out.”

The Brogden affair has let punters
peep under the solid face the Liberal Party has been able to present
most of the time. There’s real danger that they’ll be disgusted by what
they see there. Voters may be more sensitive than Tony Abbott.

New NSW Liberal leader Peter Debnam announced his new shadow cabinet
yesterday, with most of the dead wood retaining their portfolios,
including all the leading moderates promoted by former opposition
leader John Brogden.
The exception was the promotion of
talented Upper house moderate Greg Peace to fill the vacancy left by
John Brogden. Debnam’s actions will no doubt cause a bit of unhappiness
among the happy clappers in the NSW right.

“We are moving on,”
Debnam said. “There will always be some people at the fringes playing
political games but the rest of us are getting on with the job.” Last
night’s Lateline threw some light on those fringe dwellers.

And more details are available on the blog of one of the people Lateline spoke to, former Liberal Party member and candidate Irfan Yusuf. Here are some of the highlights of Yusuf’s allegations:

  • David Clarke said Muslims were welcome in the Young Libs because “we hate homosexuals and Jews as much as they do”
  • Clarke boasted how he had acted as lawyer for the Nazi-linked Liberal Ljenko Urbancic
  • Clarke made a donation to One Nation.

Expect more
on who these fringe dwellers are – and their friends who have gone onto
big things in the Government. And that could be far more politically
sensitive than Tony Abbott ever is.