Another Captain's Call ...

Some thoughtful soul - who knows, but the long absent lord bless him or her - compiled this tidy montage of Murdochian headlines in the golden years of chaos ...

The Currish Snail headlines talking of clowns and announcing "The Circus is Over" are particularly poignant, because the circus is back in business and it's a big Barnum and Bailey three ring affair ...

As expected, the clumsy intervention by the reptiles of Oz in this morning's front pages - as recorded by the pond in a previous post, urging the dumping of jolly Joe Hockey and his replacement with Malcolm Turnbull, allegedly and supposedly as a way of fixing things - was just another part of the circus, with all the whittering columnists - Miranda the Devine and Akker Dakker amongst them - lining up to parrot the party line.

Inevitably it caused another clown to step into the ring, and parrot his denials, and for the record, the pond would like to record them:

Liberal Senate leader Eric Abetz on Sunday emphatically denied reports he had suggested Joe Hockey be replaced as Treasurer. 
"I continue to support the leadership team and I continue to support all of my ministerial colleagues, including the Treasurer," Senator Abetz said in a statement. 
Asked outside Kirribilli House earlier on Sunday whether Mr Hockey had his continued support, Mr Abbott said: "Certainly. Of course he does. Of course he does."

By golly, jolly Joe must be sweating. He's always struck the pond as looking and sounding like a used car salesman, but sadly all he's up to is selling a Trabant, or maybe the Tru-coat as an extra ...

The pond has no idea who runs the "let's keep Tony Abbott in power" division of the Murdoch rags - it seems every one follows the line more than the reptiles working for Pravda - but this one was a stupendous own goal.

And then there was the wonderful body language when Abbott announced his Captain's Call. As he turned to go, after a spectacularly short announcement, he looked like a man in deep denial and forty fathoms down in terms of pressure:

And then there was the abysmal rhetoric:

The only question, the only question for our party is do we want to reduce ourselves to the level of the Labor Party, in dragging down a first term prime minister.

No, that's not the only question. It's not about the Labor party, it's not about dragging down a first term prime minister. It's about leadership, government policies and captain's calls. It's not about navel gazing, or maybe it is:

(more Wilcox here)

Turnbull looked a little terse when calling out the Captain's Call, but later, frolicking with Julie Bishop, he looked amiable, as did she, as the reptiles turned bee-shape and flocked around the new honey pot.

Naturally Abbott's call produced the appropriate headline:

And that flushed out Arthur Sinodinos, and produced agitation in the backbench as well.

The pond hasn't had this much fun in a long time, and even the reptiles of Oz seemed to realise that maybe Sir Duke had done it again - the announcement went from the PMO to the media before heading off to the PM's colleagues:

Yes, backlash, inflamed critics, and Abbott, like a floundering shark, handing out warnings to his colleagues, as if that's the way to woo and beguile ...

And now the reptiles can't pretend.

See, there in the header for the collection of pieces.

It's a leadership crisis, or put it another way, the clowns are well and truly making mayhem in the circus ...

As noted in the last post, the pond was rooting for Abbott, rooting really hard, but now the pond has got a touch of the collywobbles and perhaps this might have been the last post in a completely different way.

As the pond pounds the keyboard, there's that blathering blowhard Jeff Kennett on ABC24 saying the public has switched off and a change is necessary, and the wounds are self-inflicted, saying everyone's wondering how a modern leader could be so tone deaf as to do a Sir Duke ...

Well yes, it's got so compelling that the pond simply doesn't have time for a Sunday meditation, but does thank the reader who offered up the atheist billboard - sheesh, the pond never pays attention to any form of advertising - and this comment on the religion which informs Abbott's attitude to science:

Now which song should the pond be playing on Monday?

Monday, Monday, so good to me; 
Monday morning, it was all I hoped it would be. 
Oh, Monday morning, Monday morning couldn't guarantee 
That Monday evening you would still be here with me. 
Monday, Monday, can't trust that day; 
Monday, Monday, sometimes it just turns out that way. 
Oh, Monday morning, you gave me no warning of what was to be. 
Oh, Monday, Monday, how could you leave and not take me? 
Every other day, every other day
Every other day of the week is fine, yeah. 
But whenever Monday comes - but whenever Monday comes 
You can find me crying all of the time. 
Monday, Monday, so good to me; 
Monday morning, it was all I hoped it would be. 
But Monday morning, Monday morning couldn't guarantee 
That Monday evening you would still be here with me. 
Every other day, every other day 
Every other day of the week is fine, yeah. 
But whenever Monday comes - but whenever Monday comes 
You can find me crying all of the time. 
Monday, Monday, can't trust that day; 
Monday, Monday, it just turns out that way. 
Oh, Monday, Monday, won't go away; 
Monday, Monday, it's here to stay. 
Oh Monday, Monday Oh Monday, Monday...

Or should it be this one?

The silicon chip inside his head 
Gets switched to overload. 
And nobody's gonna go to parliament today, 
He's going to make them stay in the party room. 
And Margie doesn't understand it, 
She always said he was as good as gold. 
And she can see no reasons 
'Cause there are no reasons 
What reason do you need to be shown? 
Tell me why? 
I don't like Mondays. 
Tell me why? 
I don't like Mondays. 
Tell me why? 
I don't like Mondays. 
I want to vote 
The whole day down. 
The telex machine is kept so clean 
As it types to a waiting world. 
And Margie feels so shocked, 
Hubbie's world is rocked, 
And her thoughts turn to 
Her lyrca-clad man 
Sweet 57 ain't so peachy keen, 
17 months in the gig and everyone acting so mean
No, it ain't so neat to admit defeat.
They can see no reasons 
'Cause there are no reasons 
What reason do you need? 
Tell me why? 
I don't like Mondays. 
Tell me why? 
I don't like Mondays. 
Tell me why? 
I don't like Mondays. 
I want to vote
The whole day down, down, down. 
Vote it all down 
What's wrong with a dictatorship?
All the playing's stopped in the party room now 
He wants to play with his toys a while. 
One last Sir Duke before he goes
And the party room's out early and soon we'll be learning 
And the lesson today is how to resign. 
And then the bullhorn crackles, 
And the captain crackles, 
With the problems and the how's and why's. 
It's not about me
It's about being not the Labor party
And not picking on me
There's a little boy waiting at the counter of the party room
He's been waiting down there, waiting half the day
They never see him from the top
He gets pushed around, knocked to the ground
He gets to his feet and he says,
What about me, it isn't fair
I've had enough now, I want my share
Can't you see, I wanna be PM
But you just take more than you give
And he can see no reasons 
'Cause there are no reasons 
What reason do you need to resign?
Tell me why? 
I don't like Mondays. 
Tell me why? 
I don't like Mondays. 
Tell me why? 
I don't like Mondays. 
I want to vote
The whole day down, down, down. 
Vote it all down ...

By golly, the pond's not certain about the provenance of those lyrics, but if you made it to the end,
call yourself Sir or Dame Duke and join with the pond in celebrating the Liberal Party: