So much outrage, indignity. So much hand-on-heart concern for the integrity of the office of Prime Minister from the Federal Opposition and their supporters in sections of the newsprint and broadcast media. After all, how can the good burghers of Australia entertain the thought of having a crook in the top job. There's only one problem, there is no evidence of this to back up their claims. Allegations by insinuation only.
It is stating the obvious: Prime Minister Gillard's naive relationship 17 years ago with a crooked union official who dipped into a slush fund for his own benefit does not make her a crook, it only shows that people can be gullible and inexperienced in the ways of the world even when in their early 30s. With only circumstantial evidence and innuendo to prosecute the issue, the Coalition seeks to build a case that is leading nowhere.
Not that they care, for their reason for pursuing the PM has nada to do with justice or integrity, the purpose is to smear Gillard enough that her relative popularity compared to the leader of the opposition, Tony Abbott, is damaged sufficently to no longer represent the only real threat to their return to government come the 2013 election. And no lack of hard proof, no accumulation of dead ends will dissuade them.
In fact the Coalition's tactic is a rerun of their attack on another Labor PM, Paul Keating. In the 1990s despite dredging up a mountain of dirt the Coalition failed to prove any illegalities in the business dealings of Mr Keating's part ownership of a piggery. The tactic then as now was to destroy any trust the people had in the PM in the lead up to an election - a Coalition speciality. This time, however, it may backfire. Time will tell.