The NHJ campaign just keeps on rolling, with Canberra Press Gallery President and West Australian correspondent, Karen Middleton, giving readers today a summary of our dear leader's week.

Breakfast fare sounds alert and alarm for PM

By Karen Middleton

On Tuesday morning, John Howard fronted Channel 9's Sydney studios for one of his regular breakfast interviews with program host Steve Liebmann on the Today show. With its chatty soft format, Today is one of the Prime Minister's favourite ways to get a message out and Liebmann, the bloke he hired to front the Government's anti-terror 'be alert, not alarmed' advertisements, is friendly. This time the smile had sharp corners.

'You don't think you're becoming increasingly vulnerable when it comes to the fundamental question of honesty and trust?' Liebmann asked. Huh?

Mr Howard responded that the Australian people were his makers and would judge him and opponent Mark Latham on what they stood for.

'But out there,' the undeterred Liebmann continued, 'there's a feeling that people are saying Howard's tired, the Government's looking tired, time for a change. They're just looking for an excuse not to vote for you and your Government, and you're giving it to them.'

If Mr Howard needed a sign that questions about his integrity were humming at a disturbingly audible level above the Olympic din, that was it.

The night before, he had issued a blow-by-blow rebuttal of a cheeky Labor document purporting to catalogue 27 lies it claimed he had told in public life.

It was a surprisingly twitchy response from a leader for whom the phrase 'water off a duck's back' might sometimes seem to have been invented. And the strange agitation has continued, leaving some of his own colleagues alarmed at why he seems suddenly rattled.

Some senior sources suggested it was just proof Mr Howard took criticisms of his integrity very personally and was frustrated that the Olympic noise was blocking his response. There are differences of Liberal opinion as to whether the issue has electoral bite. But Labor types are convinced it's resonating. Mr Howard's demeanour just encourages them.

His rhetorical insistence that he has a forward agenda and the coming election is about the future, not about the past, sounds like concern that while voters might still have doubts about the alternative, they might nevertheless be getting sick of him.

Some coalition types grumble that Mr Howard should have held the election in August, when the Government's stocks were at least a bit higher.

Since then, the published polls have turned and morale has slipped. Questions about Mr Howard's stewardship of the Government have been allowed to emerge and flourish. The credibility issue feeds dangerously into a wider mistrust of government and big parties and anyone seen as their cheerleaders, including the so-called mainstream media. In the United States, the same malaise has spawned a subterranean internet-based protest movement known as 'moveon.org', which has now burst to the surface and enlisted big-name celebrities to campaign openly against US President George Bush.

On a much smaller scale, something similar is starting here, feeding off the disillusionment with big-party politics and an erosion of credibility and trust.

On the same day Mr Howard faced Liebmann's uncomfortable questions, proponents of the fledgling Australian 'move-on' movement rallied with an unusual cabal of anti-Howard candidates and former Liberal Party President John Valder under the banner 'Not Happy John' in the Prime Minister's own Bennelong electorate.

Although Mr Howard's 7.8 per cent margin would deem him pretty safe, the campaign symbolised what has fast become his Achilles heel.

On Perth's 6PR this week, Mr Howard spoke at great length in defence of his own honesty and suggested private Liberal polling showed the coalition in a strong position.

But as one cynical Liberal MP noted yesterday, if the polling really showed the coalition in such a strong position, he would have called the election by now.

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AND, former Liberal Immigration Minister in the Fraser Government, Ian MacPhee, has written a piece explaining how asylum seekers may well be a serious election liability for Howard this year.

It's a passionate call from yet another former Liberal.

AND, another anti-Howard site has appeared. Vote Howard Out features views, music and humour to get us through the coming election campaign.