I Know I've Mentioned Him Before

Paul Keating that is - but I've just discovered a new book called "Vintage Keating - His Wit and Wisdom", so I'll almost certainly soon be mentioning him some more. Sorry.

As an amuse-gueule, here are some snippets from the book. The first is not a comment from Keating but fromBarry Humphries, as it happens:

'Sydney is very central - just twenty-four hours on a plane and you could be somewhere interesting.'

The next quote is from Wayne Goss, so I don't really need to explain that it is not funny (at least not to anyone who knows who Goss is - there was a line of Keating's that I think referred to Ralph Willis - "he was standing behind the door when they were handing out personality," something like that - which, from my impression of him, would apply to Goss as well.) Nevertheless, it may shine some light on the present election campaign:

'Queenslanders are sitting on their verandas with baseball bats just waiting for Keating to come. They've been sitting there for a long time. But the really chilling thing is that they don't care how long they have to wait. They'll get him whenever he comes.'

Again, in the context of this election I suppose it is interesting to learn that Keating referred to our current Foreign Minister thus:

'He's always between a shit and a shiver.'

And about our current ambassador to the United States (plus the final stages of an election campaign), Keating had this to say:

'What would he know from roaming around the Western Australian branch and visiting pommies in nursing homes? He came to see me for advice, you know. Well, Kim and I have totally different views of politics. Look at him, he lost an election and he's still walking around like a big cuddly bear. I told him I see it like the National Geographic ad, where in slow motion the lion grabs the wildebeest on the arse, with blood and fur and dust and shit flying everywhere. That's what the mob wants in the last fortnight of a campaign - a sign that you really want it.'

Keating also described Beazley's challenge to Simon Crean as 'the revenge of the blancmange.'

That's enough for today.