Relax, the water's safe now they've taken out the fluoride and put in the kool-aid ...

(Above: you'll find Kudelka's cartoons here, and this one has the splendid title Credit where it's due, which is why we give due credit to Kudelka and his great drawing of a wheelbarrow full of something).


Will the rough Brough now pay a political price for his unseemly activities?

The pond has little political sympathy for the Slippery Slipper - as the steel-toed, boot-clad - media loves to call him - but he has certainly paid a political price.

Will The Australian now embark on a righteous crusade, crawling all over Brough's activities, lovingly printing in an inanely repetitious way, endless stories involving the minutiae of the rough Brough's dealings?

After all, they managed this in relation to Julia Gillard's alleged deeds of twenty years ago, and for weeks on end. Will they do the same for Brough, who did the same in much more recent times?

Will the commentariat howl unto the heavens and rent their garments and moan pitifully about the decline in political standards in this country?

They will? Lordy, do we live in delusionary times if anyone thinks the answer is yes.

You see, according to Dennis "the rectitudinous tie" Shanahan, while Brough might have shot himself in the foot (or might not, depending how the wind blows), it's actually just an unfortunate sideshow and a distraction from the main event:

Anxious to deflect attention from ongoing allegations about AWU slush funds and Julia Gillard's character, Labor is pouring into the Liberal leader on the back of Brough's judicial caning for joining Ashby in a campaign which involved betrayal, duplicity, lies and a deliberate overreaching of allegations that was an abuse of legal process. (Brough has shot himself in the foot, behind the paywall so you won't have to consider moral complexity in politics or journalism).

And true to form, Shanahan spends the second half of his column contemplating the misdeeds of Julia Gillard's cynical judgement, crocodile tears, trivial grounds for a sexual harassment case, the explanation that it was Ashby and Harmer who had abused process, a noting of overblown spin from government frontbenchers, and a note about the judge's wry commentary on the Commonwealth government's decision to fork over 50k.

It seems while the rough Brough might have shot himself in the foot, it's just a flesh wound, and the valiant soldier will limp on, and no more need be said about it.

So what do the other members of the commentariat think about it?

Who knows, because Tim Blair is busy putting Tim Mathieson into a competition to name the most influential leftist woman of the year. What a  clever chappie Timothy is, what a wag, what a jolly jape amongst chums, what a satirist and an ironist, and how funny to do the old rugger bugger routine, complete with skirts ...

Just one idle question. Was Tim wearing a dress himself as he chortled and typed Mathieson's name into his competition? Oh he's such a girlie, he must have been ...

Over in the fantastic world of Akker Dakker, good old Piers is merely noting that the ABC is promoting Julian Assange and his cause, and need anymore be said ...

No need to mention the rough Brough when the ABC is ruining western civilisation as we know it.

As if nothing more needing to be said, that surely can't be Akker Dakker, since he routinely spends his time saying much more than needs to be said, and always full of bile, fear and loathing, so that the pond's cup overfloweth.

What about Miranda the Devine? Nope, she's been reduced to tears at the way students aren't being taught properly - she doesn't mention it, but it's possibly because too many students have been caught up in the baleful influence of the ABC. Or Julian Assange. Or the internet. Or screens distorting students' poor plastic brains ... not that we have any evidence, we're just asking questions.

How about the Bolter? He's always seeking the high ground and ready to lash out with a moral judgement ...

Nope, he wants the punters to sue Julia Gillard, and he's scribbled an article about the way crowd sourcing sorted out 2DayFM (no regulation needed but a subscription to read required - pay to read the Bolter?), and then there's the news down below,  that it's Goodbye from him, and he's off, and with luck, he might be back some time in January.

Yep, the Bolter is part of the great Australian dreaming, that unimaginable layoff for a couple of months, which generates an astonishing loss of productivity and ruins the economy.

No doubt you've read any number of columns from the Bolter berating the ABC and public servants and other bludgers for their bludging ways (to say nothing of dole bludgers, single mothers and other ne'er do wells), and here he is, off bludging in a grand style.

So it seems that the rough Brough, court business settled, will slouch off in the great summer getaway, and return refreshed in the New Year, sordid reminders of the past safely behind him.

There's certainly nothing in the lightweight Punch to trouble him today, and strangely the ABC hasn't rushed to judgement - perhaps they've been too busy ruining student lives and supporting Julian Assange - and so instead they've settled for a survey of what other media say about the Slipper case (Drum wrap: Slipper case dismissed).

And here's the pond wrapping the Drum's wrap.

Can the world be any more reflexive? At least now it's clear that the ABC is to blame for everything ...

But at least it does point to Bernard Keane making the obvious point with which the pond started:

What if the standards invoked by the opposition in regards to Julia Gillard were applied to themselves? Even the most serious claims made against Gillard by the febrile minds at The Australian and within the Opposition are trivial compared to what a judge has found to be the case about Brough: that he was a willing party to bringing litigation that was an abuse of process - not 20 years ago, but earlier this year. (Brough justice: Mal can't slip the net on Slipper campaign, behind the paywall because First Dog on the Moon is the best reason to subscribe).

In your dreams Bernard ...

Keane even takes a moment to slip in a dig at the preposterous George Brandis, a presumptuous pompous plier of preposterous legalistic rhetoric:

As for George Brandis, his habit of declaiming, he appears to think ex cathedra, on any legal issue it is in the Coalition’s interests to pursue, raises real doubts about his suitability to be attorney-general in a Coalition government.

Indeed. And Keane doesn't let Brough off the hook:

By even a pale shadow of the accountability demanded by the opposition in recent weeks, Brough cannot continue as its preselected candidate for Fisher.

Indeed, but in the world of pale shadows and ghostly riders, it's only Crikey that's actually trying to draw a few conclusions about the rough Brough, as the rest of the world drifts off into the summer dreaming.

Will you find anything like this amongst the cardigan-wearers at Fairfax?

Nope, all you'll find is Michelle Grattan treading the path of objectivity, and her piece, dated like the glazed eyes of a day old fish in the market, has already slipped off the digital front page.

In it she noted that there are no winners, except of course for the rough Brough, still slouching towards Bethlehem, or at least a seat in Canberra:

Where to now? Ashby is flagging an appeal. Slipper is victor, but remains in limbo while the Cabcharge matter is finalised and pending the possible appeal Ashby is flagging. The Liberals are red-faced but unrepentant. The government is scoring political points but still licking its wounds. (James Ashby Loses Battle But Wins War)

A fine summation and concluding par, which doesn't even mention the rough Brough or his future fate should some fickle finger look at his deeds.

But at least in Brough remains candidate despite damning judgment, we did get the answer to how the Queenslanders will play the game - there's definitely something in the water up there - and that's to slip into the Australian summer playing a straight bat, and arguing that nothing can be done because it's all subject to an appeal, and well, memories do slip in the media, except when it comes to something that happened twenty years ago, and so by January it'll hopefully be done and dusted ...

And courtesy Fairfax, we did get a direct link to the judgment itself, which you can read here. 

And what a tawdry, pathetic and fascinating read it is, too.

The rough Brough scores more some hundred or so mentions in the text, and one of the more interesting points is the way that the media - let it be noted that the learned judge fingers the Murdochian media - played their role as attack dogs in the game.

Or put it another way, as the learned judge proposed ... that the Murdoch rags would give a sympathetic, if not enthusiastic, airing to the alleged issues at hand ...

Will these same hacks now play another game as attack dogs in relation to the rough Brough?

How about this, and how about letting loose the hounds of war?

138 I am also satisfied that Mr Ashby and Ms Doane by about 29 March 2012 were in a combination with Mr Brough to cause Mr Slipper as much political and public damage as they could inflict on him. They believed and hoped that Mr Lewis would publish unfavourable stories about Mr Slipper concerning whatever they could help Mr Lewis find in relation to Mr Slipper’s use of his travel entitlements in the areas of Mr Lewis’ curiosity. That is why each of Mr Ashby, Ms Doane and Mr Brough were anxious to provide Mr Lewis with the diary entries he sought. It is not clear whether Mr Brough had passed on to Mr Lewis Mr Ashby’s foreshadowed complaint of sexual harassment in late March 2012. They also believed that Mr Lewis, and the media generally, would report on any legal proceeding against Mr Slipper in which Mr Ashby alleged sexual harassment. At this time, Mr Ashby and Ms Doane saw Mr Brough as their means of obtaining favour from the LNP in seeking new employment. It was obvious that once what Mr Ashby was then planning became public, he and Ms Doane could no longer work as members of Mr Slipper’s personal staff. The relationship of trust and confidence (if it still subsisted) between Mr Slipper and the two staff members would have been destroyed by their acts of calculated disloyalty. 
 139 The timing of Mr Ashby’s and Ms Doane’s actions immediately after 24 March 2012 is also significant. They believed that new job opportunities would open up to them after the LNP won government in Queensland on the weekend of 24-25 March 2012. If Mr Ashby could discredit Mr Slipper politically by helping Mr Brough and using Mr Lewis, he perceived that would gain favour for him and Ms Doane in the eyes of the LNP. Mr Russell QC may have disabused Mr Ashby of that perception on 6 April 2012. However, both Mr Ashby and Ms Doane acted on that basis before 6 April 2012 and she, at least, continued to do so later.

And so on and so forth. They certainly do things differently in Queensland. Perhaps it's the water.

There's plenty more, all laid out by the judge, the honourable Justice Steven David Rares in fine style, not that his honour might give a fig regarding praise from the pond for a lucid and detailed and vigorous judgement which is as worthy a read as any bit of investigative journalism.

After a thorough read of it, anybody else might well slink off in shame, but the rough Brough has hubris aplenty and an elephant hide as well, and somehow thinks the public of Australia needs him in service, in much the same way as the aboriginal people in the bush benefited from his skilfully organised invasion of their territory and their subsequent subjection to his will and grand vision ...

Per Keane, if the LNP had a shred of integrity, they'd now dump Brough, and bring on another candidate, who would - no matter their pedigree, or even if they happened to be a drover's dog - would be on extremely short odds to beat Peter Slipper, should he embark on the extraordinarily brave quest to retain his seat.

But the cynical pond is betting that come the end of January, when the Bolter returns from his summer bludging, after ruining the productivity of the nation, that the rough Brough will still be the nominated candidate for the seat of Fisher, and the media will be as quiet as a pair of Hush Puppies about it ...

And that pompous prat George Brandis, who mistakes the lofty, elevated sound of his voice for incisiveness and insight, will be a splendid part of the team.

Is it fair, is it just, is it right and proper?

Sssh, just have another drink of the water. It's perfectly safe, since they took out the fluoride and put in the kool-aid ...

Strangely, the pond was reminded of its favourite poem, by William Butler Yeats, called The Second Coming. (yes, you can find the untouched original there)

Apologies to Mr. Yeats, is there nothing sacred?

Turning and turning in the widening gyre 
Dr. No's falcon cannot hear the falconer; 
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; 
Mere Abbott anarchy is loosed upon the world, 
The blood-dimmed Brough tide is loosed, and everywhere 
The ceremony of innocence is drowned at ballot-box; 
The best lack all conviction, while the worst Broughs
Are full of passionate intensity. 

Surely some revelation in a court case is at hand; 
Surely the Second Coming is at hand in Fisher. 
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out 
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi 
Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert of Fisher
A shape with lion body and the head of a man, 
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun, 
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it 
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds. 
The darkness drops again; but now I know 
That twenty centuries of stony sleep 
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle, 
And what rough beastly Brough, its hour come round at last, 
Slouches towards Canberra to be born?

(Below: and credit is due to Nicholson, for this blast from the past, which clocks in at number three when looking for images of Mal Brough. You can find more Nicholson here).