gillard cooks herself over phony menu

http://blogs.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/piersakerman/index.php/dailytelegraph/comments/gillard_cooks_herself_over_phony_menu/

WHAT a rare thigh slapper Julia Gillard’s attack on Tony Abbott was yesterday.

Accusing him of being in some way responsible for a tawdry menu she claimed was circulated at a fundraiser for candidate Mal Brough.

The point must be made – the menu was never circulated.

It was drawn up by Brisbane restaurateur Joe Richards as a joke to amuse his staff in March.

It wasn’t that funny, the references to Gillard were the sort of thing that circulates on the web and are generally not passed on.

School boys and girls might have tittered but Labor thought it was on a winner - just like it did when a Labor staffer encouraged a race riot in an attempt to embarrass the Opposition last year.

But the Gillard camp seized on a fake “menu” by a Labor-leaning restaurant employee and it appears Gillard’s staff waited for an opportunity to reveal it.

That time came yesterday when it was obvious that Gillard’s misanthropic attack on Abbott and her decrying of blue-tied men had blown up in her face.

Both Labor and Liberal men wore blue ties yesterday demonstrating their disdain for the prime minister and her gutter appeal to gender politics and her attempt to make abortions a federal issue at this election.

Now her “menu” attack has imploded as well.

Restaurant owner Richards took responsibility saying: “There were never any menus distributed on the tables or in the restaurant. I created a mock menu myself as a light-hearted joke, however as I said I never produced them for public distribution.

“Unfortunately a staff member saw the mock menu, and unbeknownst to myself, posted it on their facebook. It now appears that a third party for political reasons has distributed it, yet I can reassure you that no such menu was distributed on the night.

“It is so unfortunate that an in-house joke between myself and my son has caused you great problems and embarrassment,” he wrote in an e-mail to Brough.

Gillard, for her part, called the mock-up part of a “pattern of behaviour” by Abbott’s Coalition.

She demanded Brough be disendorsed because of what she had heard about the “menu”.

Wrong, Julia, wrong. Just like your ridiculous speech in Parliament last year attacking Abbott for misogyny.

If you’re not prepared to wait for the facts before calling for someone to be disendorsed you should be made aware of what many Australians think of you and your association with the former AWU union bosses who rorted their members’ funds.

You would be out on your ear.

What we have seen here is not evidence of a pattern of behaviour on the part of Abbott but a continuance of the smear campaign Labor and Gillard have been conducting against the Opposition leader.

Sewer politics.

The sooner Gillard and her team of sewer feeders are driven out of office, the sooner the nation can start to feel better about itself.