Kevin 'Wolfdene' Rudd's greatest problem redux ...

An interesting summary of 'glass jaw' Rudd's problems:

See - 'Next PM' Rudd knows he's in strife.

An excerpt:

Oakes read out remarks by Neil Breen, editor of Sydney's Sunday Telegraph, which this month broke the story of "Sunlies", or "Rudd's False Dawn".

The story was that Rudd agreed to a plan by Channel 7's cult Sunrise show to fly to Vietnam for an Anzac Day dawn service at Long Tan. Except it would not be a real dawn service but a fake, held an hour earlier to coincide with Sunrise's peak ratings.

According to Breen, Rudd "went bananas". He rang Breen to insist his office had nothing to do with any fake service. Rudd "just went crazy", Breen said. "The threats sort of mounted", and "it was the heaviest situation I've been in in my career".

Nor did Rudd stop there. He even rang the chairman of News Ltd, John Hartigan, and insisted the Sunday Telegraph story was wrong. He demanded corrections and reportedly made threats.

That kind of heavying and behind-the-scenes attempts to nobble an editor is something to try only when you are very, very sure you're right. When you stake your reputation on it.

Well, Rudd staked his and lost. Breen produced an email proving Rudd's office knew of the fake ceremony and Rudd had been booked to fly to it.

You may respond, so what? Rudd has since 'fessed up to his mistake, and, besides, offending an editor and his boss - especially a Murdoch boss - is a Labor leader's duty.

But Oakes and Rudd know he's stuffed up.

Clearly after blood, Oakes asked Rudd yesterday to explain his behaviour. And gave him a kick: "What are you going to do about your glass jaw?"
...

He has now little time to remake himself before the public starts to notice, too, and to wonder if this highly intelligent, ferociously hard-working man does have the glass jaw that will make him unpredictable in high office.

Original blog comment:

... his own staff - probably the greatest hurdle to any political ascendancy:

Example 1 (12 April 2007) -

Kevin Rudd is talking big about climate change but he was caught short while explaining why he still drives around his native Brisbane in a gas guzzler.

The Opposition Leader was on Melbourne radio yesterday spruiking his new rainwater tank and lamenting that a lack of sun exposure thwarted his efforts to install a solar water heater.
He then admitted to choosing as his government-supplied private vehicle a 4WD Ford Territory.

"As far as I am aware, you can't actually get hold of a hybrid car through the government purchase arrangement," he said. "That's my understanding anyway."

The Australian Democrats leader, Lyn Allison, phoned in to say she had a government-supplied hybrid.

Mr Rudd pledged immediately to look at a hybrid when it was time to hand the Ford in.

See - Rudd's green drive hits bump.


Example 2 (13 April 2007) -

The office of Kevin Rudd was warned more than two weeks ago that plans for a stage-managed pre-dawn service at Long Tan, Vietnam, in which the Labor leader was slated to take part, risked "seriously offending" veterans and others.

A series of emails obtained by the Herald also reveal Mr Rudd had booked flights and was confirmed to attend the event, which was scrapped only four days ago when it became public.

Last night Mr Rudd admitted his office had received the email which warned about the possibility of causing offence, but said it had not been brought to his attention.

"My staff have informed me that in their search of the documentary record on Easter Sunday, this email was overlooked. I have now counselled my staff on this matter," he said.

See - Rudd admits gaffe over TV dawn service in Vietnam.

Mr Rudd has previously denied newspaper reports that his office and Channel Seven's Sunrise program had discussed plans to stage a pre-dawn service to coincide with prime time TV slots in Australia.

Veterans groups attacked the reported plans, which were also denied by Sunrise.

Mr Rudd says his initial denial of knowledge about the plan was an oversight.

See - Rudd claims lies are an 'oversight'.


Example 3 (31 March 2007) -

Three hours later, about 1pm, [Lachlan] Harris [a Sydney lawyer who worked for two federal Labor frontbenchers, Robert McClelland and then Wayne Swan, before he joined Rudd's staff after Rudd gained the Labor leadership last December] phoned Walsh back in "the same feral, belligerent mood".

He went through a detailed time line of Rudd's recall after his father's death in February 1969. However, it was non-attributable, "on deep background only". And if the paper decided to publish, knowing what they were being told, "we will regard it is a deliberate malicious assault" on Rudd. If this happened, "we'll have 100 people ready to roll tomorrow morning to trash you and your paper".

"There were seven calls between him and his team, maybe only six, perhaps even eight, to try to have that story pulled. There was a bit of pressure to me, there was certainly pressure to KA to roll or she was [expletive] in Canberra, and all of this bullshit language. I think his minders were heavier to KA than they were to me. There is no doubt they did not want that story in the paper."

Kevin Rudd has a dangerously glass jaw.

See - The story Rudd tried to kill.