Steve shrilling.....and Nick pontificating

Sometimes a glimpse of Family First's Senator Steve Fielding breaks a fella out in hives and sometimes it just brings on a burst of laughter.
His shrill impotence in the Senate last Wednesday was a joy to behold; "I am deadset serious about this. This is just a joke. I may not be the best negotiator. I am just a kid from Reservoir, but, sure as all heck, I know when someone is stuffing around.....We need a stimulus package. It is just a shame that the government think that they need no other ideas except their own. It is very sad. It is a very sad day."
Yer - you tell 'em Little Stevie. Twist and shout, drum your heels into the carpet while the adults look the other way.
Fair dinkum, it's a joke.

At the same time Independent Senator Nick Xenophon tried and failed not to sound pompous as he threw his political weight around; "Do I support the package? My biggest concern about the package has been not simply what we are spending but also what we are buying. I do know that targeted infrastructure spending will serve generations to come, which is important because, if future generations are going to pay off this debt, the deal we do now must benefit them too. When faced with complex global crises and equally complex economic responses as we deal with this response package, it is important to be clear about what we know, what we do not know and what we cannot know. I believe this is an important point to make even if I risk sounding a little like Donald Rumsfeld."
And then later smug when interviewed on the 7.30 Report.

What is amusing in all this is that the Senate Inquiry into the Nation Building and Jobs Plan (on which both these men sat as participating members) recommended in its final report that the Senate pass those 6 bills immediately.
As the Committee hearing evidence was evenly balanced between Labor and Coalition senators whose votes along party lines cancelled each other out, then some of the remaining 6 minor party/independent senators must have voted to recommend that the Senate pass the second stimulus package post haste.
I wonder if somebody was overcompensating here?
Of course the plaintive mewing gave him away - it was bound to be Fielding.
However, Xenophon is by far the more cynical pollie of the two.
He honestly thinks that no-one will dare utter so much as a peep when he repeats the supposed rational for his blatant money grab ie., that throwing water buyback money at irrigators in the Lower Murray Darling (for water that doesn't yet exist) and similar measures will make the skies open and the rain fall.
He is happy to blackmail the country and can't hide the frisson as he contemplates the power he has greedily grabbed with both hands.
Yup, the man sounds and acts a lot like Rumsfeld.

* Possum over at Pollytics hopes that Xenophon will come to his senses later today Friday 13th;
"In 15 hours we’ll know whether Australia passes a package that minimises the economic and human costs from the GFC induced slowdown, or whether these blokes [Xenaphon, Turnbull and Joyce] become the 3 Stooges of the Recession.
Parochial Stooge, Political Stooge and from watching the Senate committee on this package, a bloke not too far removed from a bag of hammers.
I’m flabbergasted - let’s hope Xenophon comes to his senses tomorrow or he will carry a very heavy burden.
The real irony here is it’s the bloke in the middle that’s probably the one completely sh*tting himself, because if this package fails to get through the Senate, the fallout against Turnbull by the public will be enormous. Every piece of bad news will become his fault in the mind of a huge chunk of the public - Labor will make sure of it. That better economic manager series we looked at earlier might become a nostalgic golden age for the Coalition."

UPDATE 1.10pm:

The Federal Government's $42 billion economic stimulus package will pass the Senate after a deal was struck today between Labor and the independent Senator Nick Xenophon.
Senator Xenophon said he would vote for the package after winning $900 million in extra funds for the ailing Murray-Darling basin and other water projects.
It involves bringing forward an extra $500 million over the next three years for water buybacks, $200 million in grants to assist local communities save water and to better manage water and $200 million in stormwater harvesting projects.