Last Call For The Greatness Express

JOURNALIST Glenn Milne earned a reputation last year not only as a man who should take Stephen Mayne a lot less seriously but also as Peter Costello's pressman at large. He made plain his belief the then Treasurer was exactly the humane and socially progressive successor to John Howard so keenly needed by the Liberals and the country. Certainly he'd have to transcend the poisoned chalice syndrome that is the customary inheritance of succeeding Treasurers. But the public would come to acknowledge his broader interests and winning traits if only the notoriously stubborn Prime Minister would have the grace to bow out. During the leadership tussle between the two men, Milne became almost a spokesman for the Costello partisans. This went too far at times - indeed, he showed why paid opinionists should avoid becoming players. The often sulking obsession with Howard's alleged double-dealing was laid on exceedingly - even irrationally - thick.

There are big dollops of it even in his latest column. He condemns John Howard for talking up his deputy's incontestable credentials in the concession speech of 24 October. He shouldn't have done that, Milne argues, because Costello had told him he "might" not stick around if the government lost. Well, maybe the former "Mr 18 Percent" presumed his second-in-command had the mettle to battle on as manfully as he himself had 20 years before. Leaving this baloney aside, it's a pleasure to enthusiastically support Milne's plea today for Costello to re-consider his announced retirement from politics and square off instead against Kevin Rudd.

The reasons are many but three are compelling. First, while it's true Brendan Nelson has a formidable talent for mastering a brief - to the extant that Labor frontbenchers nicknamed him 'Rainman' - Costello's delivery, both in Parliament and in public, is less robotic and more adorned with believable levity. That might not be fair to Nelson but it is a perception that may well become entrenched in the electorate's imagination. Second, it is very broadly accepted - by many besides Glenn Milne - that a Costello freed from the arcane and reputationally punishing Treasury desk could impress voters with his longstanding and profound articulacy in several social and cultural topics of public discourse. He is not Tim Costello's heartless version, as some tend to believe. Finally, there's the buzz factor in politics now, here and in the US. Costello would generate a lot - less contrivedly than the Rudd and Obama campaigns - if he strode back on stage. Likely? Sadly, no.