Sherry’s back! Greg Sheridan, writing in the Oz, reminds us of the hot-metal days of printing, when a series of headlines were permanently set in type: ‘No Survivors’, ‘War Declared’ and of course ‘Labor Split Looms’. The last grouper is always looking for a treacherous left, and he thinks he’s found one in Stephen Smith. More after the jump.

Rudd is absolutely right to take a tough line against illegal immigration. …those who cannot bring themselves to embrace the Prime Minister’s language, such as Foreign Minister Stephen Smith in a remarkably evasive and feeble performance on Lateline, merely show how much better, shrewder and braver than the Labor Party Rudd is

Wow. Different members of the Labor Party saying different things. It’s almost like they want to give out a complex yet integrated message. Imagine.

Bizarrely, the article is notable for the fact that Sheridan actually rescinds one of the decent things he did, which was denouncing the Howard govt’s ‘pacific solution’. He claims now that he (mistakenly) argued that the scheme wouldn’t work. In fact he argued that it was cruel and immoral, and all but accused the government of racism. He’s hotly trying to deny he ever made a moral argument. ‘It must have been some other Greg Sheridan…’

With Turnbull trying on the ‘we will decide’ line, like a small boy trying on his father’s clothes, and pundits like Sheridan all at sea in a boat they appear to be sabotaging, there is no doubt that Rudd is shrewder and braver than some. But it’s not the ALP that are suffering in the comparison.