Get Rhiannon! 4

Surely you didn't think Get Rhiannon! 1, 2 & 3 was it, did you?

As night dogs day one of the Australian's rotties-in-residence, Christian Kerr, is baaack for yet another snarl and snap at Greens senator Lee Rhiannon and with yet another plug for Sally Neighbour's Monthly scuttlebut about the NSW Greens.

Most of Kerr's leaps and lunges we're already familiar with, but the first at least reinforces the point I made in my 7/2/12 post Gallant Sir Bob: At a doorstop in the Senate courtyards, party leader Bob Brown was "forced to defend one of his own, the controversial NSW senator, Lee Rhiannon, and play down rifts and instability in his own party." (Greens' big year may sour, 9/2/12))

And it also gives us an insight into the behaviour of the beast - Kerr that is. First manufacture your 'controversy', then badger Brown until he obliges with a comment, after which you can claim it was forced out of him.

Still, it has to be said: Brown leads with his chin. If he'd given Rhiannon the same kind of defence he gave Gillard on Lateline the other night, and named and condemned the attacking Murdoch press while at it, Kerr's little stunt in the Senate courtyards - for who else would have an interest in forcing a defence of Rhiannon from Brown? - would not have been possible.

Here's the second - yet another promo for Sally Neighbour:

"The cover story in the current issue of The Monthly by veteran journalist Sally Neighbour outlines the tension between the hard-left-dominated NSW Greens and other branches of the party. It carries claims by some MPs and activists that the NSW division is run by a small cadre of 'Leninist' ideologues whose activities make members seem like 'lunatics', and counter-claims Brown is a 'megalomaniac." (ibid)

In the original - for what that's worth - the bit about Leninist ideologues comes from an "unnamed source," while the bit about "making us look like lunatics" comes from Ian Cohen and refers to Marrickville Council's support of BDS.

Yet, in Kerr's latest diatribe, your unnamed source and your Ian Cohen become a more substantial some [Greens] MPs and activists.

And when our rottie next bares his fangs, what'll it be? Nine out of ten Greens reckon they're led by Leninist loonies?

Then there's a reference to NSW Liberal senator (and former Howard staffer) Arthur Sinodinos "point[ing] out yesterday Rhiannon is a scion of one of Australia's leading communist families." (ibid)

Ooowah!

Consider this:

"Sinodinos absorbed a strong anti-communist world view from his mother, who was shaped by her experiences as a farmer's daughter during the Greek Civil War." (Howard's right-hand man to honest broker, Deborah Snow, Sydney Morning Herald, 23/7/11)

Now since what's good for the goose is also good for the gander, and given Greek anti-communism's many crimes, would Sinodinos have any problems with being described as a scion of one of Greece's (whether leading or not) anti-communist families, with all the baggage that that entails?

And now please put your hands together for a return of the raised eyebows:

The Greens' decision to "award their preferences in this weekend's hotly contested by-election in the South Australian state seat of Port Adelaide to the Communist Party candidate has raised eyebrows in Canberra." (ibid)

No doubt these are the same "raised eyebrows" that "were raised within the party by the presence of upper house MP David Shoebridge at the annual Socialist Alliance conference in Sydney." (See my 5/2/12 post Get Rhiannon! 3)

My God, are we witnessing a raised eyebrow rebellion within the ranks of the Greens?

There's surely only one way to find out. Will the Greens, one and all, kindly assemble for a raised eyebrow count? Here's how it works. As I hold up a picture of a hammer and sickle, or, for greater accuracy perhaps, the letters B, D & S, highly trained raised eyebrow experts will pass among you and assess whether your eyebrows may be considered raised or not and so conclude just how many of you are groaning under the tyranny of the party's lunatic Leninists.

Finally, in case you're still wondering what the hell all this is about, here it is in one sentence:

"The public conflict between Brown and Rhiannon over the NSW Greens' support for the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment & Sanctions campaign has been the most recent demonstration of the policy tension between the pair."

Oh, and that's public conflict concocted in Israel lobby land and hyped for all its worth by Murdoch's Australian and its rotties.