Rodent Come Back ?  

Apparently some people are never happy - The Age has a column bemoaning the demise of the Rodent - "Hating Howard gave life real meaning. What is a good leftie to do now ?".

I'LL tell you something for free. The leftie dinner parties aren't nearly as much fun as they used to be. We miss Howard. Sure, we're glad he's gone, but we miss him. We got what we wanted but now we've got bugger all to talk about. Nothing to rail against. Nothing to make us thump our fists on the table and force spit to fly out of our mouths. Nothing to set our eyes ablaze. Last year the left was on fire. This year we're happy. And we're not happy about it. The left loves a whinge, a wine and a rant. ...

Man, we loved to hate Howard. Back in the good old days of 2007 it was wall-to-wall leftie love-ins of hatred. The hate brought us closer together. Now, who've we got? We can't hate Brendan Nelson. That'd be like picking on the retarded kid. Bring back Costello, I say. If the Liberals truly loved the latte left they would present us with Alexander Downer esquire fully stuffed complete with an apple in his mouth. Or Bulletproof Bronwyn Bishop. Please! We're begging. If we can't have something to rail against, at least give us, the cartoonists and the comedians something to laugh at.

The Melbourne Comedy Festival had a significant drop in ticket sales this year. There were plenty of theories about why this was: mortgage rates were up, it started earlier in the year than usual, ticket prices too high. My theory? Because Howard's gone. The past two years the Comedy Festival had bumper ticket sales. I reckon this was because people felt disillusioned and powerless with a government that ran on spin, dog whistles, scare campaigns, pork-barrelling and fear-mongering. We wanted to be in a room watching someone prowl up and down the stage screaming that yes, it was wrong, and no, we weren't alone. And when we all laughed as one we realised we weren't. When a comedian bagged WorkChoices, the treatment of asylum seekers, Howard's refusal to say sorry, our involvement in Iraq or his pandering to the aspirationals, we cheered. We left with fire in our belly and ticket stub in hand feeling as if maybe we could help make a change. And we did.