Farewell

Another of Bush's gang has fallen. Let's ponder what's next for Mr Howard, the former Prime Minister of Australia:

• Perhaps a well paying seat on the board of directors of Halliburton, the Carlyle Group, Exxon-Mobil or News Corporation
  
• Consulting is always an option; I expect Howard could charge well over $500 an hour to inform elites how to be more elite
  
• Like Bill Clinton, Howard could attend high level gatherings and act as a keynote speaker; amazingly, like Clinton, he could have a change of heart and lament the lack of action from "developed" countries on poverty, disease and, yes, even climate change
  
• Perhaps like Mr Blair, Howard will take on the peacemaker's role, perhaps in Indonesia where Australians are well respected

In the end, this defeat is meaningless. Howard achieved record profits for corporations, dried out his country by ignoring climate change and further militarized Australia. (New) Labour would have done the same and I expect they will; perhaps with a few more smiles and some bones for the poor to gnaw on. Signing up to the Kyoto Protocol, seemingly the only difference between the parties, is at this point fairly weak gesture worthy of the Liberal Party of Canada.

Good luck to you John Howard and also to the land down under (perhaps to have a more telling meaning with global warming causing rising sea levels).