Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Seat-sniffing in the west

I would be astonished if Troy Buswell gets a kick out of smelling the seat that a woman has recently sat in. I assume his actions in sniffing the chair seat of a female Liberal Party staffer (in her presence) were a questionable joke that has gone seriously wrong. You wonder about the motives of the woman concerned in making her outrage public and in thereby publicly crucifying Buswell in front of his colleagues and his family. It seems to me these disclosures are marginally more destructive than putting a clip of Kevin Rudd on YouTube chewing his earwax which, in my view, wins the party-political grossness stakes hands down.

Seat-sniffing on the face of it would seem to be a more innocent perversion and indeed derriere and yeast devotion has been the subject of helpful advice from YouTube – ‘prepare an explanation lest you get caught’.

By the way I have a leather chair for sale that I’ve sat in for over 20 years. The leather in the chair is a bit, well, worn, but it does have the wholesome bouquet of a Vitamin B Berocca. There are a few inconspicuous tooth and nostril markings that mysteriously appeared deep in the leatherwork after some left-wing Labor Party types raided my cellar once I had departed my office but the chair is in otherwise excellent condition. All offers considered.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Unlike ear wax eating, seat sniffing has a crude sexual connotation, which is why Buswell is toast. (I suppose it could have been worse. He might have licked the chair.)

Unfortunately for Buswell,this kind of buck's night behaviour, in a work environment, doesn't cut it anymore. Certainly not with voters, who would like their political leaders to be grown ups.

And, of course, Buswell denied it. Being economical with the truth is the opposite of what is required in these situations. As always, it's not the crime, it's cover up that gets them.

And now that master of political judgement, Brendan Nelson, has supported Buswell, just when Buswell's party is going to dump him. Onya Brendan.

Anonymous said...

I think you both have this the wrong way around. First came the rumour, spread by Buswell's Liberal Party enemies, that the incident happened (years ago). So, when Buswell was ambushed by reporters, he said it was an allegation, which it was. Later, the woman was asked about it and confirmed it happened, and said that she was angry at the Libs for bringing it up again. Then Buswell apologised to everyone - I never heard him deny it.

Slim said...

The bottom line here is that Buswell has appalling judgment and questionable character in performing this act/insult in public while harbouring ambitions of political leadership.

Look on it as a kind of natural selection at work for which we should all be thankful.

Anonymous said...

An allegation is something that might or might not be true. But Buswell knew it was true, because he'd committed the act.

When Buswell said it was an allegation, rather than admitting to the act right away, he effectively denied it.

Anonymous said...

harry - you have a leather chair and a cellar in your office at that French taxpayer funded University?

Will said...

Latest article on this makes Harry's comments seem pretty flippant.

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,23653950-661,00.html

Clearly, it wasn't just a joke gone astray, but was in fact grossly improper conduct reflecting a complete lack of judgement and sensibility, and indeed, quite obviously misogynistic. How this man is still around is beyond me - though no doubt the hackneyed and parlous state of WA conservative politics has something to do with it.

To not only compare this favourably with the ear wax thing, but to blame the victim of this for coming forward is pretty contemptible - and illustrates well the lack of properly progressive attitudes in the Tory mindset.

hc said...

Will, I don't excuse the behaviour at all. It is appalling to the woman concerned and an act of gross impoliteness.

My judgement too about the woman has changed. She did make a statement to the press but after they had hounded her. She wanted to forget about the whole thing.

I am inclined to agree with Slim. This guy probably should not be in politics.

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