The Conga-Line of Suckholes Revisited

Where's Kevvy and what's he up to these days? Sucking holes over in you-know-where, of course:

"Rudd is expected in Washington today for the annual Australian American Leadership Dialogue, of which he is a founding member." (Shocked Obama phoned Rudd first to offer a global job reference, Peter Hartcher, Sydney Morning Herald, 12/7/10)

Kevvy's hole-sucking goes way back:

"Shadow Cabinet met in the morning. We had a long debate and more confusion about our position on Iraq. Rudd reported on his recent trip to Washington and New York, but he need not have bothered, it's all in Glenn Milne's column this morning. As ever, Rudd is insatiable for publicity. He is such a big-noter, telling Milne he held talks with four of the five members of the Security Council: France, Britain, Russia and the US, but not China. Then his prediction: 'Rudd is convinced a second UNSC resolution allowing the use of force against Iraq will be passed without either France or Russia exercising their right of veto... His instincts are the vote will go 13-2 or 12-3. France, Rudd thinks, will either vote for it or abstain'. Keating, for one, thinks this is nonsense - the Russians sacrificed too much in World War II to be pushovers for the Americans. Brereton is also sceptical: 'Mate, he says whatever the Americans want him to say. They own him lock, stock and barrel'. This has always been Danger's [Brereton's] view of Heavy Kevvy - too close to the US. He's certainly part of the foreign policy establishment... At Shadow Cabinet, you could almost feel Crean urging Rudd on, praying that he's right about the Security Council. Simon doesn't want to get between the Americans and their dirty little war - that's what the caveats are about. UN approval is the Leader's best way out of this issue - his ticket to respectability at the next Australian American Leadership Dialogue, the US-sponsored club that our senior people have signed up for. The US owns more than Rudd." (The Latham Diaries, Monday, 3 February 2003, 2005, pp 211-212)

"Crean's staffers are enjoying themselves today. His foreign policy adviser, Carl Ungerer, was up in Rudd's office and found Kevvy's eight-year-old daughter wrapping up a present for Mr Schieffer, our mate over at the US Embassy. A peace offering, apparently, for the nasty things we said in Parliament about Schieffer's baseball and land development partner, George W Bush. Sounds like Rudd's part of the conga-line. Kevvy reckons he got a call from the Embassy asking, 'Mr Rudd, what's a suckhole?' After he gave them a diplomatic answer, the Embassy official wanted to know, 'Is Mr Latham allowed to say that about the President?'" (Latham Diaries, Thursday, 12 February 2003, p 214)

Bushama simply adores him:

"Just before he phoned Julia Gillard to congratulate her on ascending to the prime ministership, Barack Obama called the man she'd just assassinated to take it... As Obama told the ABC's 7.30 Report in April: 'Kevin is somebody who I probably share as much of a world view as any world leader out there. I find him smart but humble. He works wonderfully well in multilateral settings, he's always constructive, incisive'." (Hartcher, 12/7/10)

But other Americans reckon he's a bit of a sook and should get back to what he does best:

"[H]e has also irritated some senior US officials in the past fortnight in numerous phone calls to Washington. 'Kevin has been whiny and mopey', said one. 'There's been too much 'if only' this and 'if only' that. He needs to just suck it up and get on with things'." (Hartcher, 12/7/10)