Leadership Blues
John Howard wants to be king. Anyway, that’s what I might think if I was Peter Costello. Poor guy’s been waiting for a chance to take the top spot in the Liberal party for years, but Howard’s a tenacious politician, internally as well as between the parties in an election. His line about staying leader for as long as the party wants him was running a bit thin last October, and now that he wants a go at a fifth term, I suppose it feels that way to Costello, too. Well, if the Liberals want him, barring age and health problems, they can keep him. I don’t see Costello mounting a successful leadership challenge unless something goes very seriously wrong nationally, and nobody wants that.