Abbott and Costello do Australia

Ah Joy. Turns out that the Howard's End election in Australia has caused a farcical collapse of the Liberal (read conservative) party which has had some difficulty choosing a leader to replace Howard. They are not subtle down under, so two of the leading non leaders are named, I kid you not, Abbott and Costello.

John Quiggin reports

First, Howard’s deputy and longstanding rival Peter Costello announced, contrary to most expectations, that he would not serve as leader of the opposition and was looking to get out of politics and into business where he could make some real money.

and

The last prominent conservative left standing at this point, Health Minister, Tony Abbott, announced he would run for the party leadership but withdrew when it became apparent he didn’t have the numbers.

Who's on first ?

The liberals finally settled on another guy with two first names Brendan Nelson as they seen to have trouble with silly sounding last names.

The part I like best was the explanation of Downer going Down Down Under.

In the middle of the post wonderful John Quiggin writes

And there was more to come. Foreign Minister and Mark Steyn fan, Alexander Downer decided he would also head for the backbench (it seems likely that he and Vaile will face a lot of trouble for a deal in which a government-established monopoly paid Saddam Hussein kickbacks, out of Iraqi Oil-for-Food money, to buy Australian wheat, right up to the day Australian forces took part in the 2003 invasion).

Makes me want to eat some vegemite.