Speaking of schemers and hacks and that scheming hack Erica, as the pond sometimes does ...

Being something of a record of lunar events, it would have been remiss of the pond not to note Erica's latest outing, as recorded in Eric Abetz attacks 'schemers' and 'hacks' (with forced video)

The pond is always titillated when a schemer and a hack attacks others as schemers and hacks, and airs dirty laundry in the lizard Oz in a valiant attempt to maintain the wall-puncher's diminished, but still faithful flock, if only so the pond can link to the wicked Fairfaxs faithfully reproducing the essence of the yarn.

Naturally Erica was rewarded this day with an Oz editorial ...

Now that header is deliberately misleading, because it is in reality a poignant and passionate plea for the schemers and the hacks who have fallen out of favour with their own colleagues and the wider population ...

Of course it was only a very little while ago that to be a moderate wet Liberal was the rough equivalent of signing up to a pest extermination program, conducted by the wall puncher and his allies.

It took only a few short years for that experiment to blow up in the faces of the fundamentalists, and now - short memory - they squawk and get flustered at a little pay-back, most notably against dropkicks and losers of the Kelly, Taylor and Fierranvanti-Wells school of factional flops.

So it befalls to the reptiles of Oz to do their best to attempt to save this pathetic rump by giving the likes of Erica the space to bleat ... when all that's happened is that the market place has spoken, and the urge to replace damaged goods has come upon the party like the urge to return unwanted Xmas presents to the store and get something useful in their place (Dick Smith excepted)...

Note well how the reptiles manage to sound just like a plaintive Erica, with their newfound love of democracy, as if there was some kind of democratic process in place, whereby the hacks and schemers who backed the wall puncher scored their gigs ...

You have to admire the reptiles, calling on Turnbull and Arthur to sort out a mess of the wall-puncher's making (hasn't he been quiet these last few days, leaving the dirty work to the likes of Erica - no doubt he's plotting and scheming away, as scheming hacks are wont to do).

As if Erica in any way mirrors the day-to-day concerns of mainstream voters ... as if the wall-puncher and his government also managed to do the same.

As if, come to think of it, a paper with a wretched paywall and a very limited digital footprint, and a tree-killer circulation under mostly 150,000 a day in a population of some 24 million, and that propped up by throwaways, giveaways and freebies, has much of a clue about or a connection to the day-to-day concerns of mainstream voters.

The paper, like the fundamentalists it routinely supports, is more like the Jonestown Daily than the heart of the nation ...

The reptiles, if they had half a clue, as opposed to a copious supply of kool-aid, would be urging the incumbent left-over seat-warming cronies to stand down, and give others a chance.

The newcomers might be as far to the right as Genghis Khan, or further still, if that would placate the reptiles in their angst ...but at least they would be new, freshly minted, like dud one cent coins ...

And yet the reptiles still keep ringing their hands and sounding their alarums for the seat-warmers ...

Look, it even made its way up to the top of the digital page ...

But wait, it's way past time for Chopper Bronnie to go, and Ruddock the amnesiac Amnesty man is also long past a retirement date, and the barren Bill is surely due a return to pasture and the land, if not to stud ...

Why carry on about these barnacles, who should be scraped from the hull? 

Having Bronnie - who did so much to bring her former mate the wall-puncher down - stand again would be a first class embarrassment. She can battle the terrorists from the north shore if she wants, but surely not as a backbench disgrace...

If she had any grace or insight, the woman would stand down, but then she's always lacked both, which helps explain how Choppergate came to be ...

Ruddock, and Heffernan too, can now only ever serve as back benchers so you don't have to be filled to the gills with talk of agile renewal to know that this is the time they should be going, so that other youfful Khan types might turn up to entertain the pond with their follies ...

This isn't personal, or even political. It's just that it's time, ladies and gentlemen ...

And yet the reptiles keep fighting the obvious ...

Well it's easy enough to understand why Dutton would dig in behind the party elders. One loser backing other losers makes perfect sense ...

But what's in it for the reptiles?

Even the Terrorists have a better angle ...

Perhaps carting her out in a box is a bit extreme. Why not just fly her out in a chopper? She'd understand that, she'd appreciate the gesture ...

Now the pond isn't a wowser, and never supported prohibition and isn't a member of any temperance organisation, but there's something of the ten o'clock closing in the desire of Bronnie and Co to stay and keep swilling down the champers, long after it's time to go home ...

Perhaps it's time for the wall-puncher's allies to embrace the family values they always blather on about ...

Yes, help preserve Liberal family unit and harmony. It's time for the seat-warming losers to revert to six o'clock closing - their spiritual era - and to head on home ...