Labor lets loose it’s dogs of war

Everyone, it seemed, wanted a piece of the confessional Abbott – everyone but his prime opponent, Kevin Rudd.

As his minions and advisers went for Abbott’s throat, a low-key Prime Minister, who had been prepared to hit the road and sell the budget for a second week, ducked the issue. He simply flicked it to his ministers and let Gillard, Tanner, Swan and Emerson throw the mud and question Abbott’s credibility.

There is the reasonable answer for Rudd’s reluctance in the time-honoured practice of letting a deputy or two do the dirty work, but there was also the issue of Rudd’s own recently tarnished credibility.

Labor ran the dual risk of appearing too eager and too febrile in their Abbott attacks and drawing Rudd into a debate on believability. It was a risk Labor advisers recognised.

There was a hint of desperation, which smacked of the Howard government’s own rattled response to Mark Latham and Rudd in their early times as opposition leaders.