"Cranks and crazies", Huffington Post

Rightly, looks like there a few annoyed Americans over there after Australian Treasurer and deputy PM called some Tea Party Republicans "cranks and crazies". The story has been carried in the Huffington Post, which BTW has a bit more juicy quoting that I've seen in the media here:

Wayne Swan, who also is treasurer and his center-left Labor Party government's ranking finance minister, took aim at the tea party during a speech to a business forum, breaking a convention among Australia's major parties to steer clear of U.S. domestic political debates.

"Let's be blunt and acknowledge the biggest threat to the world's biggest economy are the cranks and crazies that have taken over a part of the Republican Party," Swan said.

He said "the extreme right tea party wing" of the Republican Party had held the national interest hostage during last year's debate over the U.S. borrowing limit despite President Barack Obama's "goodwill and strong efforts."

He said it was imperative that Congress reach an agreement to support growth and avoid a "fiscal cliff" of deep government spending cuts and higher taxes in January, which he said could push the U.S. economy back into recession. More

Interestingly, Prime Minister Gillard has backed Swan over his comments:

But the Prime Minister said Mr Swan was simply doing his job. “The strength of the American economy matters to the global economy,” she said. “The Treasurer has been making appropriate comments today about potential risks for the global economy and consequently for the Australian economy. You would expect him to be doing that.”. More

Which I found a bit strange. After all, according to the Huffington Post, there is apparently a "convention among Australia's major parties to steer clear of US domestic political debates". Is there? I didn't know that. How informative the HP is, I get to be instructed by them on a "convention" that evidently exists here.  

You'd expect therefore this to be the first line of attack by the opposition here, who'd have howled long and hard about breaking this convention. But no. I would say that at the most it's a bit inappropriate, but there's been no attack by the Federal opposition here about the breaking of some convention. Pretty much all they've said is accuse him of hating Republicans, or some other lame assed thing like that. 

So does the American gov also have some sort of imaginary convention about involving itself in the domestic affairs of Australia? Apparently not, if Bush's treatment of the failed Labor leader in the Mark Latham experiment is anything to go by back in 2004. This too was in the lead up to a Federal election here, with Latham being the opposition leader and at the time (if I recall correctly) was ahead in the polls. He wanted to get out of Iraq:

The Opposition Leader, Mark Latham, has refused to give ground after an unprecedented attack by President George Bush over his pledge to withdraw Australian troops from Iraq, plunging Labor's relations with the US to a new low.

"Nothing President Bush has said today changes our hopes and expectations about the future," Mr Latham said after Mr Bush described Labor's proposed pull-out as "disastrous" and implied that he should not be elected prime minister.

"Labor never wanted the troops there in the first place. We intend to have them home by Christmas."

Analysts described Mr Bush's strong attack on Labor policy at a White House press conference with the Prime Minister, John Howard, as an unprecedented intervention in Australian domestic politics that would put the alliance under strain if Mr Latham and Mr Bush won elections later this year.

Mr Latham issued a declaration on Iraq policy, repeating Labor's claims that the Government's policies were making Australia a bigger target and diverting resources from the "real" war on terrorism.

He also said the recent revelations of prisoner abuses had given terrorists the best recruitment campaign they could wish for, that Australian troops had been sent to war "for reasons that were not true", and the war was contributing to higher petrol prices.

Mr Latham restated his position that Labor supported the alliance but reserved its right to disagree over Iraq. "Labor strongly supports the American alliance first established by the Curtin Labor Government during World War II."

In Washington, Mr Howard called on Mr Latham to address the issues raised when Mr Bush said Labor's withdrawal pledge would embolden terrorists and reveal the West as weak. "Mr Latham has not addressed the issues raised by Mr Bush - he should do so."More

Pot, Kettle, black? Which sort of makes me wonder, is this thing by Wayne Swan a bit of a payback for Bush and his Republican cohorts back in 2004 bagging the then Labor opposition leader? I mean seriously, what can the Republicans say about it? They did it to Labor, so why can't Labor do it back to them?

BTW, here's a paper here reporting about the reporting in the Huffington Post:

Treasurer Wayne Swan's "cranks and crazies" attack on the US Tea Party has a few Americans simmering online. 

But many reckon his comments are "spot on" and hope their fellow US citizens will notice how the rest of the world views them. 

In a speech on Friday, Australia's deputy prime minister said the Tea Party had taken over parts of the US Republican Party and was preventing Congress resolving its budget problem, the so-called "fiscal cliff". 

When asked if calling the Tea Party "cranks and crazies" was inflammatory in a presidential election year, Mr Swan replied it would be "pretty inflammatory" to see a country default.Read more