"Collapse"

clipped from www.weeklystandard.com It turns out that insurgent, populist Conservatives are scoring victories Down Under as well as in America -- and Tea Partiers and Palinistas here in the States would do well to watch conservative Aussie leader Tony Abbott very closely. Abbott became leader of the right-wing Liberal party two weeks ago after the party's parliamentary representatives turfed ex-leader Malcolm Turnbull in the wake of Climategate. Turnbull had announced that the party would support Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's cap-and-trade legislation, causing a rebellion in his caucus, and he was tossed in favor of Abbott -- a right winger and climate change skeptic. These Joe Six Pack voters were once known as "Howard's battlers", and as of today their new leader has re-christened them "Abbott's Army". In a way -- it's like watching the Tea Party movement swallow the GOP from the inside, and the polls are going up rather than down as a result. If this is a collapse, then parties should collapse more often.