Peter Lindsay confirms that the Libs are in trouble

So Peter Lindsay has declared his hand and will defend his throne at the next Federal Election.

As I’ve noted previously – the Libs (or NLP or whatever they are this week) would call him back from the departure lounge and his tour of potential retirement villages if they expected the election to be difficult and needed to protect all of their existing seats.

The other interesting thing in Lendl Ryan’s piece in The Bully today is that Lindsay clearly indicates his preference to go up against Tony Mooney – perhaps he knows he’s the only one of the potential ALP candidates that he has any chance of beating.

Ryan, The Bully’s “City Reporter”, has been barracking for Mooney ever since she drew the amazing conclusion that Kevin Rudd’s saying that “I have known him for 20 years” equals a ringing endorsement of Mooney and a guarantee of his preselection

In a second article today, Ryan seeks to convert her conclusion into fact when she describes “a stunning endorsement from Mr Mooney’s close friend, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, earlier this month”.

All that Ryan has successfully done today is confirm that the Libs expect to lose the next Federal election and probably the seat of Herbert as well and that no one can predict the outcome of the ALP preselection process until we know whether the choice will be made by a local plebiscite of members or by their federal Administration Committee

Mooney boosters are at it again

So the Bully is at it again today - leading the Mooney for Herbert cheer squad!

Lendl Ryan’s assertion that Herbert was “once died in blue” and that now, because of an evil redistribution, “Peter Lindsay is staring down the barrel of political annihilation” shows both her youth and her political naivety (a bit of a worry for someone the Bully has tagged as their “City Reporter”, whatever that is).

Herbert has always been a Labor seat and the election of Lindsay on the back of Howard’s Battlers campaign was always an aberration. Lindsay’s vote has been dropping since his first term and he would have lost the last one if Labor had had the right candidate and had massaged the defence vote the right way.

Given that Lindsay hasn’t been seen or heard of in the last two years in the departure lounge (except for the very occasional bagging of the State Government and reports of his very important overseas junkets), he was always going to lose the next election irrespective of any redistribution. The only reason he’s not gone already is that the Libs are having trouble believing that Crisafulli could win it and they (foolishly) believe that the incumbency factor will let Lindsay sneak back in again.

As for Ryan’s assertion that Mooney is a shoo-in for preselection and then Herbert – it’s a total beat-up with no new information since I last posted on the subject here. Mooney won’t declare his hand until he knows he has the numbers for preselection. He knows he can’t win a local plebiscite of members and is relying on the Administrative Committee or National Office to determine the candidates. But even then he knows there is no guarantee – he’s as much disliked and distrusted by the ALP power brokers as his is be the local membership.