Jolly Joe, more flubber than steel?

The Fin was all over jolly Joe this morning, as he plays the man of steel.

Clearly jolly Joe is suffering from relevancy deprivation syndrome.

So he set another hare loose. courtesy a word in Sky's mike:

Naturally everyone picked it up and ran with it. From the Graudian to SBS, via the Daily Terror and others (click below to enlarge if interested, though many will find that thought inexplicable). 

But here's the nub of it, courtesy the Graudian account:

"The Russians have said they will cooperate with all this – let's find out if they are fair dinkum or not," Hockey told Sky News while on an official visit to New Zealand. 

He said he hoped Russia would still attend G20 meetings, culminating with the expected visit of the president, Vladimir Putin, in November. "Rarely are great things achieved by excluding people from the conversation," he said. Ultimately, the decision about Russia's attendance rested with G20 members, not just Australia, he said. 

Hockey later clarified his remarks, saying they should not be taken as support for Russia's attendance at the Brisbane summit. His position was consistent with that of prime minister, Tony Abbott, a spokeswoman for the treasurer told AAP. 

On Tuesday Abbott said it was too early for any decision to be made about denying Russia a place at the G20 event.

Uh huh. Fair dinkum.

So jolly Joe hoped that Russia would attend the G20, but that shouldn't be taken as hoping Russia will attend the G20 in Brisbane. 

And while Tony Abbott says it's too early to talk about denying Russia a place in Brisbane, Joe Hockey thinks it isn't too early to talk about how he's hoping Vlad 'the impaler' Putin will attend, unless he doesn't, because perhaps jolly Joe isn't really hoping they'll attend the Brisbane summit, but maybe just G20s somewhere, sometime in the somehow future.

In any case, this is entirely consistent with Tony Abbott, because as everyone knows, Tony Abbott is notoriously inconsistent.

Uh huh. The pond is glad that one's cleared up ...

A man of steel? A tough, hard man of the kind needed right now?

Or an attention deprived, gibbering, cigar-puffing, contradictory idiot who does his best to help Abbott look and sound like a statesman?

Okay, there you go, there below is how the faithful flocked to reproduce jolly Joe's wise words, about as clear as the Delphic Oracle advising that one way or another, a great empire will fall. 

If you ask the pond, the economy might stand a better chance if we all started ferreting through the chicken entrails and aimed for a giblet-led recovery ...