The Crikey/Media Monitors Tuesday Top 20 has returned for the new year – and the new zeitgeist. Sorta.

Only three serving Liberal pollies are in the Top 20, but John Howard remains in the top three.

At least the big movers are Rudd Cabinet Ministers Stephen Smith, Joel Fitzgibbon, Chris Evans and Tony Burke, thanks to strife in Pakistan, the failing frigates, citizenship tests, drought assistance, budget work and fears of a looming credit crunch. Morris Iemma also features prominently, thanks to the NSW floods.

TW

Move

Type

Politician

Press

Radio

TV

Internet

Grand Total

1

0

PM

Kevin Rudd

764

2,150

783

1,964

5,660

2

3

Premier

Morris Iemma

127

3,222

875

428

4,652

3

-1

ex PM

John Howard

505

1,087

392

556

2,540

4

-1

Cabinet

Julia Gillard

182

936

855

339

2,312

5

8

Cabinet

Wayne Swan

179

892

448

210

1,729

6

1

Oppn Leader

Brendan Nelson

220

544

497

366

1,627

7

19

Cabinet

Stephen Smith

127

628

210

266

1,231

8

13

Cabinet

Joel Fitzgibbon

122

649

202

195

1,168

9

-1

Cabinet

Jenny Macklin

29

801

112

194

1,135

10

47

Cabinet

Chris Evans

51

405

153

168

777

11

13

Cabinet

Tony Burke

30

568

89

35

723

12

-8

Premier

Anna Bligh

141

74

41

399

654

13

14

Shadow

Malcolm Turnbull

78

342

99

73

592

14

-3

Cabinet

Nicola Roxon

63

321

86

98

567

15

24

Cabinet

Lindsay Tanner

21

393

5

38

457

16

-6

Cabinet

Peter Garrett

72

162

2

207

443

17

15

Premier

Mike Rann

84

270

15

37

406

18

-2

Premier

John Brumby

59

97

21

165

342

19

-2

Shadow

Tony Abbott

42

103

81

49

275

20

0

Premier

Alan Carpenter

36

92

8

133

269

John Howard still haunts the talkback charts, coming in at Number Three – but very distantly, with less than a fifth of the mentions of his successor, who come in at Number Two.

Rank

Politician

Talkback

1

Morris Iemma

867

2

Kevin Rudd

455

3

John Howard

88

4

Julia Gillard

16

5

Brendan Nelson

15

There’s more on the Media Monitors’ website www.mediamonitors.com.au.