GrodsCorp

The Costello Diaries

Tuesday 26 February 2008, 2:04 pm

Categories: Politics

The Costello Diaries If you thought there was bile dripping from the pages of The Latham Diaries just wait for the expected Costello Diaries.

The former Treasurer, who is expected to exit politics this year, has confirmed to friends he has received several offers from publishers to lift the lid on his troubled relationship with former prime minister John Howard.

[…]

It is not known whether Mr Costello has secured a publisher, but his personal account of the Howard years would be highly sought after.

One of the publishers understood to be interested in his memoirs in Melbourne University Press, the publisher of former Labor leader Mark Latham’s Latham Diaries.

Based on Costello’s sooky and petulant performances in the media over the past decade his book would surely out-perform Latham’s in terms of self-pity and burning martyrism.

34 Comments

Bron (Tuesday 26 February 2008, 3:21 pm) #

Why is bothering to write a book? We all know what he was, ultimately: a gutless wonder.
Bron (Tuesday 26 February 2008, 3:22 pm) #

Yeah, that should be “Why is HE…” Please don’t bring out that red pen, comrade!
Bruce (Tuesday 26 February 2008, 3:23 pm) #

I think that the denials about that meeting with the three journos was a bit much and in addition to his parroting of Howard’s politics of anti-Muslim xenophobia late in his career, was the thing that killed off whatever respect I had for the man. That being said, I felt genuinely sorry for the man when he was on Four Corners (more so than I’ve ever felt for Latham).

Me thinks that Howard broke him.
Bron (Tuesday 26 February 2008, 3:30 pm) #

I reckon Howard broke a lot of people. Look how many have come out against him (although still somewhat tentatively) AFTER he’s gone. There was such a culture of fear in the Liberal Party, that if you spoke against Howard, your job/seat was on the line. Greg Barns wrote a good book a few years back, “What’s Wrong With the Liberal Party?”
The Editor (Tuesday 26 February 2008, 3:30 pm) #
Chuck A. Spear (Tuesday 26 February 2008, 4:00 pm) #

Anyone who is scared of such a nauseatingly-bland-morally bankrupt-parachute pant-power walking-prancer and ultimate mediocrity like Howard is “a low altitude flyer” in my fucking books.

How anyone could feel the slightest bit of empathy for a cunt like Costello is beyond me. He was rolled by a rodent with a shit-eating grin.

Agreed. Costello = Gutless Wonder
Chuck A. Spear (Tuesday 26 February 2008, 4:01 pm) #

Can you fix my mistakes Ed?
The Editor (Tuesday 26 February 2008, 4:07 pm) #

The only thing I can see, Chuck, is that “nauseatingly-bland-morally bankrupt-parachute pant-power walking-prancer and ultimate mediocrity” is not quite strong enough.
Chuck A. Spear (Tuesday 26 February 2008, 4:14 pm) #

Yeah well Family First read this site. I wouldn’t want to offend their sensibilities.
The Editor (Tuesday 26 February 2008, 4:19 pm) #

Family First can read?
Bron (Tuesday 26 February 2008, 4:24 pm) #

More to the point, Family First read this blog?!

Thanks for that bit of red marking, Mr The. Now, turn your back to the class so I can raise my middle finger in salute and then listen to the class giggling behind your back.
The Editor (Tuesday 26 February 2008, 4:30 pm) #

I am used to nothing but respect from my students. I will expect the same from you.
Bridgit Gread (Tuesday 26 February 2008, 4:51 pm) #

Costello was a low-rent Keating - much of the ability, all of the smug arrogance, none of the social conscience. I’d say history won’t be as kind to Petie as he expects it to be.
Bridgit Gread (Tuesday 26 February 2008, 4:52 pm) #

Now, turn your back to the class so I can raise my middle finger in salute and then listen to the class giggling behind your back.

Bron, just settle down, that’s how cOmMyNisM starts.
Bron (Tuesday 26 February 2008, 5:02 pm) #

Yeah, screw communism. We students are anarchists. Watch as I hurl balled-up bits of paper at Mr The. Hear the sniggering’n’snickering now, Mr The? That’s respect!
The Editor (Tuesday 26 February 2008, 5:03 pm) #

I beat the anarchy out of my students with a metre ruler. I call it “The Enforcer”.
Bron (Tuesday 26 February 2008, 5:18 pm) #

Fink.
Adam (Tuesday 26 February 2008, 6:01 pm) #

Mmmh you can beat the anarchy out of me any day of the week.

Wait did I say that out loud?
Bron (Tuesday 26 February 2008, 6:14 pm) #

Noooo, you were just thinking it. It’s kinda like telepathy.

Oh shut up Bron. Go home before the storm hits.
Bron (Tuesday 26 February 2008, 6:15 pm) #

Before I do though, I have a little odd question: why is there a smiley face just below the Live preview on the blue background? It’s really tiny but I seen it!
Chuck A. Spear (Tuesday 26 February 2008, 6:23 pm) #

Bron, from Wordpress:

So we can tell you how many visits you have had and which posts are the most views, and how people got to your site and all the other stats stuff you have in the Dashboard, we need a way to track things. We do this by loading a small image to your page when someone looks at it and then we can get all the other information.

And we chose a small smiley :)

And if you haven’t noticed the smiley yet, look right at the very bottom of this page.
Mikey (Tuesday 26 February 2008, 8:28 pm) #

He should make it a pop up book. Like Dollar Sweets could be a page, the note from MacLauchlan a page, him shouting in Question time etc.
Meself (Tuesday 26 February 2008, 8:46 pm) #

What was that film about political biographies?

Oh yes. “Remainders of the Day”
Wah (Tuesday 26 February 2008, 8:49 pm) #

I still think Howard had photos of some of these guys earing Batman suits, doing things to goats. How else could he have kept them at bay for so long?
John Surname (Tuesday 26 February 2008, 9:28 pm) #

“I beat the anarchy out of my students with a metre ruler. I call it “The Enforcer”.”

In my day it was called the “Board Of Education”.
Chuck A. Spear (Tuesday 26 February 2008, 9:49 pm) #

Um hello… Where is today’s GrodsCast?
The Editor (Tuesday 26 February 2008, 9:50 pm) #

Editing as we ~~speak~~ write.
John Surname (Tuesday 26 February 2008, 9:58 pm) #

He can’t wait, Ed. He needs it NOW.
Chuck A. Spear (Tuesday 26 February 2008, 9:59 pm) #

Phew, I thought I was going to have to listen side B of Pernicious Minds and be left Bloggin in The Wind all over my hands.
Damian (Tuesday 26 February 2008, 10:49 pm) #

Editing? What? Don’t edit it!
The Editor (Tuesday 26 February 2008, 11:32 pm) #

Just taking out pregnant pauses and the bit where we accidentally hit the STOP button halfway through recording.
John Surname (Wednesday 27 February 2008, 9:59 am) #

And the rude bits.

Yes, there are ruder bits.
silpheed (Wednesday 27 February 2008, 11:03 am) #

I agree that there’s not much that such a book could tell us that we don’t already know. I think it will read more like Jonestown than The Latham Diaries.
Ray Dixon (Thursday 28 February 2008, 12:26 am) #

Latham’s diaries at least told us how mad, paranoid & deluded he was, but Costello is actually sane, which makes him a hell of a lot more boring. There’s just nothing interesting about this bloke and he won’t have any interesting stories to tell about his colleagues either - because they all ignored him. Howard wasn’t the only Liberal never to invite him over for dinner.