Kevin, have you ever thought about dignified silence?
Today's News Limited papers have an interesting and insightful story about Kevin Rudd and his pursuit of power.
It confirms what blind Freddy can clearly see - that Rudd needs to let go and move on.
The story quotes Rudd's elder brother reminiscing about their childhood.
As a young boy, Rudd was apparently fascinated with power and empires and had posters on his bedroom wall about them.
The story is pretty tame and in no way sensational (reprinted in full below).
But that's not how Rudd sees it.
Rudd sees this fairly inconsequential story as a "character assassination - through my brother".
He says his family relationships are 'complicated', but that he still loves brother notwithstanding the article.
Still?
Why on earth would Rudd respond at all?
Rudd's really just confirming the reporting - that he hasn't got over being dumped as PM, twice.
It's pathetic and tragic.
How on earth did this bloke get to be Australia's PM?
Kevin Rudd’s brother Greg has told Sky News Australia he believes the former Prime Minister needs to let go of his disappointment from his time in office, but fears it is not in his DNA.
Speaking to Sky News’s special investigation Men In The Mirror, which airs on Sunday night, Mr Rudd — who was forced to sell his business after he was banned by the former PM from lobbying the federal government — revealed his younger brother was obsessed from an early age with how to gain power.
The documentary by Chris Kenny examines similarities between former prime ministers Rudd and Malcolm Turnbull.
Mr Rudd said that on the wall of the bedroom he shared with the future Labor leader as a child there were posters of empires.
“He was always fascinated with the rise and fall of empires, how you get authority, how you keep authority and how to rise through those systems,” he said.
“How do you become a leader? With the absolute, 100 per cent belief, that if he got there, he would make the world a better place.”
Mr Rudd said he believed Mr Turnbull was similar.
He fears, however, that both men are struggling to move on from their time in public life.
“You’ve got to learn in life to let go. Now I try to let go because if you have hatreds, dislike, anger, inside you it becomes like a tumour almost. So do Malcolm and Kevin and people of that ilk let go, whether they be in business or politics? No, they don’t. And it’s just not in their DNA to let go.”
Mr Rudd said he could imagine his brother might have been a Liberal if the circumstances had been different.
“I think a lot of people globally that I’ve met will use the relevant party as a vehicle for them to execute what they have had in their head for a long time,” he said.
“So if the Liberal Party ever allowed him to, could he have ever been on that side of politics? Maybe. I’d say exactly the same with Malcolm. Maybe.”
Also in the documentary, Sunday Telegraph columnist Peta Credlin talks about what would happen at Liberal leadership meetings during Labor prime minister Julia Gillard’s time in office.
She said deputy Liberal leader Julie Bishop would often come to these Opposition meetings in the morning after catching up with Kevin Rudd. Ms Bishop would then recount “X or Y” and claim it came from Mr Rudd.
“Staff like me would be charged to sort of go and look at the document, or look at the speech, or look at a travel record etc, and sort of join the dots, and nine times out of 10 it was ammunition for the Opposition, to the detriment of the then prime minister Gillard,” Ms Credlin said.
