Saint Maxine loses courtesy


Andrew Bolt, Herald Sun Columnist

December, 2007

TALK about sour winners. I mean, of course, Saint Maxine McKew, writes Andrew Bolt.

McKew, the former ABC TV host, became an instant Labor darling by beating prime minister John Howard in his own seat of Bennelong.

This week she was at the launch of a hagiography about this struggle to sainthood, and - in comments broadcast around the nation by her former ABC colleagues - she told adoring fans and celebrities what beating Howard meant for us all.

"I think Paul Keating got it right, you know, this election has wiped away the toxicity," she declared.

"People are smiling, a sort of sense of, we can get on and do things.

"And I think we all want to get on and do things in a certain way, in a civil way, in a sensible way, and get rid of perhaps I think that brutishness that has characterised our politics probably since 2001."

On she went: "A terrible thing happened then . . . I think its time to get rid of that horrible absolutism . . ."

Earth to McKew: You make a liar of yourself. Calling your defeated opponent toxic, brutish and a horrible absolutist is hardly proof that this election has wiped away the toxicity. Rather the reverse.

Indeed, I've never heard Howard use such ungracious language against a defeated opponent, whether Kim Beazley (whom he liked) or even Mark Latham (whom he privately despised as a boor).

Even in leaving office, Howard maintained his famous civility and a respect for conventions and adversaries - qualities that aren't just good manners, but the oil we need to stop friction from turning into flame.

He turned up at the declaration of the count for Bennelong, for example, knowing the cameras would be there to witness his final humiliation - the formal loss of his seat. And rather than scurry out afterwards, he congratulated McKew again and hung around for a cuppa.

Whatever his opponents may think of Howard's policies, none could honestly deny he was anything but personally courteous.

And I suspect that quality of his is too easily overlooked or taken for granted.

McKew is simply fooling herself if she thinks Howard's defeat now means the country will wake up to something even more civil.

Take the ABC, which so uncritically ran her boasts about Labor giving us a new, more decent Australia.

At that same time the ABC put up on its "Unleashed" web page a video clip it called "the John Howard Farewell Anthem", adding: "11 years in power, John Howard has left a huge legacy, and in this rousing Aussie Pub-Rock anthem, the people of Australia bid him a big farewell".

I must be clear: The ABC did not actually make the clip, but picked it out from entries to its Sledge Video Satire competition as a "highlight".

Some highlight. The video features a band standing in front of McKew posters and singing a re-worded Howard-hating version of the Angels' Am I Ever Going to See Your Face Again, complete with the chorus "No way, Get f----- f--- off" and shots of Howard's head being dunked in gunk or blown up in an explosion of blood.

Thanks, ABC. Were the barbarians defeated, or elected?

I'm not blaming McKew for this, but the triumphalism of Labor's win has an ugly edge, and she would do better to tame it than feed it.

I suspect Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, at least, intends to do just that.

He already seems as keen on the polite conventions as was Howard, and had the grace during his victory speech - so damned by Leftist commentators such as David Marr - to ask all voters to pay tribute to Howard's long years of public service.

That was fine gesture from Rudd, who in such things seems again to be me-tooing Howard. If he does manners as well as the original, we'll be lucky.

Join Bolt's blog at www.blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt