Mr & Mrs Abbott
There’s only one circumstance in which I consider the sexual lives of politicians to be my business, and that’s when they legislate about what goes on in other citizens’ sexual lives.
Failed Prime Minister Tony Abbott operates from a platform that is largely based on his personal morality, drawn from Catholic dogma. This morality advocates traditional heterosexual monogamous marriage, and argues fiercely that this is the only circumstance in which children ought to be raised.
Abbott supports the current Marriage Act with the amendment added by John Howard specifically to deny same-sex couples the right to marry.
Same-sex marriage will, in Abbott’s view, destroy what he perceives as the “sanctity” of monogamous heterosexual marriage.
Abbott foisted the notion of a plebiscite on same-sex marriage on his party, a completely unnecessary, extremely expensive and likely barbaric exercise in which citizens vote on whether or not other citizens are permitted to legally commit themselves to each other in marriage.
As health minister in the Howard government, Abbott refused Australian women access to the non surgical abortion pill known as RU 486 because his personal morality is offended by abortion. RU 486 had been declared perfectly safe, and was widely used in many parts of the world. Abbott directly interfered in the sexual lives and futures of women who did not wish to have a child, by denying us access to this drug should we need to use it, thus restricting our options in the event of unplanned pregnancy.
Abbott has paraded his wife and his daughters as evidence of his personal morality: he is a traditional, heterosexual married male, and therefore we assume him to be upholding monogamy as a significant value in our society and in his personal life.
Tony Abbott has made it his business to comment on, criticise and exercise legislative control over the sexual practices and commitments of Australians. If he is not living up to the ideals he demands are enforced, if Abbott is himself desecrating the perceived sanctity of monogamous marriage by infidelity with a married woman, I have a right to know about that hypocrisy.
If Tony Abbott would care to lose his interest in controlling the sexual practices of adult citizens, I will be more than happy to lose my interest in his. Until then, everything Tony Abbott does that can be seen to affect the sanctity of the ideals he espouses and imposes is my business, and yours, and everyone else’s.
No Place For Sheep 
A fair and reasonable attitude, if admittedly made easier to read by the StopTonyMeow extension I still have running in Chrome. 🙂
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You still have that cat thing??? LOLOLOLOL
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Well, he keeps popping up in the news. Best to keep it until he goes away for good I think.
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As a wise old bird suggested to me a few minutes ago, there is another circumstance that warrants interest in politicians’ sex lives:
A point well made, in my opinion.
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Ah, yes, I hadn’t thought of that, Fiona
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I’m probably naive, Jennifer, but I think there’s always been more of a “publish and damn your eyes” attitude among Australian politicians than those in the UK or America.
However, it’s not beyond the bounds of possibility. Just imagine certain senators indulging in certain unusual activities – a little blackmail could go a long way there.
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No, I don’t think it’s naive, Fiona, blackmail doesn’t seem to be a big thing in this country and it’s likely only a matter of time till that changes. Especially given there’s no moral leadership to be found in the parliament.
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I consider Abbott’s sex life my business, as he interferes in everyone else’s. #auspol
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Abbott does not look very comfortable in that photo, I wonder why not…?
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It’s horrible, isn’t it lolololol
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Your usual very cogent argument. With one point at which I might cavil. “If”. We don’t know whether Abbott has abused his self-proclaimed views about the supposed sanctity of marriage by consorting sexually with a woman married to someone else. It is a rumour; gossip; quite possibly scurrilous; and more than likely political in the intra-party sense. That said – I devoutly wish he and every other bedroom policeman would bugger off, mind their own business, and refrain from expensive duck-and-weave ‘plebiscites’ that are wholly unnecessary.
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Yes, 8 degrees, both parties have denied an affair. Whether they actually joined genitals isn’t the point for me. Bit like Bill Clinton saying he didn’t have sex with that woman because there wasn’t penetration.
Their intimacy was alarming given their professional roles and power. Given as well the strict rules for monogamous heterosexual marriage, (which are not mine!) they were publicly emotionally unfaithful to their spouses.
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You and I are never going to see eye to eye on Clinton, are we?
Cheese and chalk.
However, Clinton did make one unforgiveable mistake and that was in discussing his wife with Lewinsky and for that I’m glad he copped some sort of comeuppance for that.
But I’d just once like read something from a feminist that factors in the context of a monumental smear campaign against the Clintons to hog tie the government and considers the role of Linda Tripp, an individual more despicable than the Clintons and hapless Lewinsky combined.
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No, we aren’t PW! I’m no Clinton fan, husband or wife.
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Linda Tripp?
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With friends like her…
I’m very sympathetic to Monica.
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You are hard to please. Bill Clinton was one of their better Presidents, and Hillary rated one of the better Secretaries of State.
Bill misbehaved sexually, and Hillary probably knew more about it than they let on; but it isn’t OK in the strange moral codes of America for a partner to turn a blind eye to sexual misbehaviours.
Hillary is strong and her strength includes knowing just what Bill is like, and not being bothered all that much about it. It sends the conservatives even more batshit crazy than they are. They can’t lay a glove on her.
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Well, I don’t live in the US, so I can be picky 🙂
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DQ you’ll notice some of your replies to Tess Tierney are gone: I’ve trashed all her posts and all our replies.
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Perfect, Guinevere.
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Don’t agree. TessTierney is likely a sock puppet for some one else and “her” ideas seem odd to better educated people, but I hate the idea of someone, most of all someone maybe with issues, perhaps, winkled out.
You have always allowed people to comment freely in the past and let their arguments stand or fall on their merits, because there are enough people here capable of dismembering illogical posts.
From what I remember of TessTierneys’ posts, they were odd manifestation of a troubled soul, rather than deliberately trouble causing.
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Oh, PW, I haven’t got the energy just now. It was the religious assault I didn’t want. There’s no arguing, debating, reasoning with the religious, really there isn’t. I don’t need to look at my blog and be assaulted by religious claptrap just now. Nobody was engaging anyway, only DQ getting sweary. I don’t have a problem with different points of view and contrary opinions but the religious fanaticism is beyond me.
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You are an angel. I am so deeply fond of you I will conclude, earnestly, that you may be hasty in describing brotherly guidance as “mansplaining” .
It is a duty of care we feel we owe our sister’n yet so often our good intentions are rejected with contempt prior to investigation as native feminine impetuosity takes over, creating “errour”.
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*snort*
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You have to recognise though, if you don’t say you prayers before bed each night, God will know and will punish you later.. you will not get that birthday pressie you kept close to your heart, for not being nice to God.
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*snort snort*
My birthday is the Ides of March. So….
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“Getting sweary”!
I reserve the right to tell any religious nutter to fuck off. 🙂
It was pretty obvious that our Tessie was a sock puppet for some deranged Pell supporter, who’d wandered in because of the re-blogs.
Never darken our door again. If you want religious “debate” go to ABC religion; or better still, go to buggery.
LOL
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Something good might come out of Savva’s book, people who have forgotten what a book looks like, might start reading again…
Booksellers are smiling again, this one will sell like hot cakes, better that sweet Annabel’s book on cakes..
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Good point, Helvi 🙂
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Indeedie! What always fascinates me is that, regardless of your efforts to portray yourself in a certain way, it is ultimately the public who will decide what role you fill in their lives.
Abbott has become “that guy”, you know, the one we’re all told that we shouldn’t be.
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Quite rightly, imo. Why on earth would anyone want to be like Abbott?
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Based on that photo I would be more worried about Mrs Abbott playing hooky. I mean surely Tony’s head has been Photoshopped into that photo! It is the only explanation for why his head is just that little too big and placed too low on his neck.*
*I don’t really think this but that is a terrible photo.
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I know it is, but I didn’t have time to search plus I don’t care much if its terrible, lol. 🙂
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Well he really does have a “BIG” head!
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Fiona’s reason is as compelling as Jennifer’s and I doubt whether it is a naive proposition, it goes to the realist heart of darkness that is the underbelly of our world. The two reasons combine in the example of Tony Abbott, vanity and over confidence masking a vulnerability that makes him one of the led rather than a leader and a target for manipulation.
Abbott’s soul mate in all of this has become the black eminence of Nikki Savva, a desolate soul-free sort of place. We’ve seen vicious hit pieces in the past but this effort rivals any for cynicism.
Burt it is true that if Turnbull can’t get the Abbott dog’s teeth out off his leg very soon, the Coalition lose the election.
The trick will be to welcome some more home truths about Abbott without assuming Turnbull and his string-pullers are any better, any sort of substantial improvement, after the last few months.
Put it this way, without Abbott for contrast, how good does Turnbull REALLY look?
An interesting thing will be to see if Bill Shorten can use his repreive to make the ALP competitive again.
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PW Shorten blotted his copybook at Mardi Gras by asking that the refugee float be excluded. A compromise was reached, the float ordered to sail far away from Rainbow Labor.
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… Is that true … how pathetic …
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You are kidding me??
I can’t beleive they would be that stupid. What in the name of god do these hillbilly corstalks think they are playing at?
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Thank you, Paul (and Jennifer) and okay, I was being a bit tongue in cheek about being naive.
I’m very much in four or five minds about Ms Savva’s role in this galère, however.
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Yes, well, me too, Fiona, she has her own agenda I think
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Heavens above, four or five minds about her?
She is a pure ball of destructive opportunism.
I rate her lower than Mad Miranda Devine.
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Abbott’s hypocrisy knows no bounds, but it is fully consistent with his mentor George Pell and with his cronies on the right of the Looters Party.
As you point out, Jennifer, Abbott made his own family an issue, a part of his political platform and an exemplar of moral rectitude. He now deserves all he gets.
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Catholic dogma says have an affair Mon-Sat and come to confession on Sunday and after 3 our fathers and 5 hail Mary’s all is forgiven til next Sunday when the process repeats itself lol.
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Townsvilleblog,
I am not, and never have been, a Catholic. My many Catholic friends, however, have told me that they only get absolution/forgiveness if they are truly sorry, repent, and do their best to amend their wicked ways. So, just turning up for confession, telling whoever what you did or didn’t do, and saying sorry doesn’t cut the mustard.
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Nailed it!!
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You are correct.
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….and maybe tell a little story that you will never do it again, until next week lol…. religion = delusion.
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3 our fathers and 3 hail Mary’s. That is the norm lol
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Reblogged this on alphatacticus101 and commented:
Serious food for thought !
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Thank you for your insightful article. I always enjoy reading your opinions .
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Thank you, Andrew
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Seems all these bible bashers are tared with the same brush. preach one thing do another.
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The bashers, certainly. However, I do know many people of faith, and without faith, who are truly good and caring individuals.
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Whatever you think about Tony Abbott, you either think his views and policies are irrelevant, or you don’t. The logical extension of this article is that if he is a faithful husband, his values and morals are consistent and his views valid? If he has been unfaithful his values are morals are questionable and therefore his views are invalid? This is high school school stuff. I don’t care who he is sleeping with, my disagreement with his views on gay marriage and women’s access to RU48 etc are absolute. Is the author of this article then insinuating her position on Abbott and his policies is flexible based on his extracurricular activities?
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That isn’t my logical extension. I think you missed the point of the post. I would oppose Abbott’s policies no matter what his personal activities. The post is about hypocrisy.
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I agree. There is no such extension of logic. An absence of hypocrisy would however show Abbott to be delusional.
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No, the article is kind of about stooping to his level “you got no right to preach to me preachy preacherman when you’re shagging your secretary”. I’m saying he had no right to preach irrespective. If the man can’t separate church and state that’s a bigger problem for me than hypocrisy, or us poring over his dirty laundry. It distracts from the main game here – he was a terrible prime minister, who ran his party like a dictatorship (after we caned Krudd for doing the same), and imposed his religous beliefs on the populace. If it is not the logical extension of you article to weight Abbotts policy against his integrity, why would you spend 4 paragraphs making that association?
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I really am not fond of having myself mansplained to myself.
I don’t care about anyone’s sexual life unless they are in a position where they have power over the sex lives of others. If they poke their noses into others bedrooms, others are entitled to return the disfavour.
I have on this blog an entire category dedicated to Tony Abbott, with thousands of words about his policies and no reference to his sexual activities.
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It’s a current issue. Abbott’s incompetence has been dealt with ad nauseam, here and elsewhere.
This issue potentially blackens him with his core constituency – and they aren’t the forgiving type.
Enough.
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Circumstantial evidence would back Dr.Wilson’s statement up.
Previous thread starters here have demonstrated that Dr Wilson is consistent in her opposition to ALL politicians of Abbott’s type and has its origins in a rational appreciation of how many policies derived of an ungoverned subjectivity, hence bias, conscious or unconscious, will impact adversely on the subjects of misguided policy, such that a 10 yo aboriginal girl suicides because life has been made intolerable for her by the system.
It appears a fault in perceptions derived of an incorrectly weighted and conditioned personal make up, a theory also backed up by the sort of statements about lying (not sex) Abbott offered up to Leigh Sales and others over sometime, but perversely ignored by the public.
It’s quite simple. If Abbott can’t rein in his impulse to lie on some issues, how can we ever know he won’t lie on future ones?
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In Abbott’s bizarre worldview, a man fucking another man is a crime against nature that will result in them both being burning in fire for ETERNITY after they die. An incomprehensibly monstrous concept.
On the other hand, a man (of the catholic priest variety) fucking regiments of little boys is something that should be swept under the carpet in case it damages the reputation of the catholic church and those who work for it such as his good mate george pell. An equally incomprehensible and monstrous concept.
He’s an incomprehensible and monstrous life form.
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Pretty good summary, LSWCHP
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He’s worse then the”desiccated coconut”
Thank goodness he’s now in histories garbage bin.
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Abbott epitomises hypocrisy.He’s’hoisted on his own petard’ (the penultimate loser)
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One thing that’s always fascinated me about Abbott: you always hear anecdotally from people close to him that he is apparently an excellent listener. He’s reputed to engage thoughtfully with people one-on-one, ask sensitive questions and to seek to properly understand their perspective…
… and then he proceeds to throw it right back in their faces and imposes his ideas of what he thinks is good for them. It’s like he sees himself as a lightning rod for all that ails us, dissipating all our energy into the ground. I’m not sure where I’m going with this…
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He’s acting out the priestly role he abandoned after the seminary but never entirely relinquished. He did that in his moralising, and his lectures. Where you are going is obviously to a crucifixion as Abbott sacrifices himself for our sins.
I must be channelling a bad spirit today….
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Gosh you’re right : he’s martyred himself, and now he’s risen from the dead… and stigmatised to boot!
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He is Christ incarnate, suffering for our sins..how dare we not be chastised, bowing before Tony, utterly awe struck at his performance of suffering on his metaphorical cross.
What a klutz.
He always reminds me of Snoopy on his kennel again engaging in death defying combat with a mythical Red Baron.
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As usual, a great analysis Jennifer. I don’t disagree with you, but I’ve been thinking of this in different terms. Aside from the hypocrisy, affair/not is irrelevant. The frisson to me smacks of (1) blaming women for men’s downfall; and (2) an attempt to emasculate Mr Abbott through the way in which Ms Credlin is presented as so ‘formidable’. In other words, Mr Abbott wasn’t man enough to control his woman. I wonder also if we will ever get over assuming man + woman = sex. No one presumed that the pre-budget cigars shared by Messrs Hockey and Corman were post-coital…
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Aha, that last sentence, Kat!
Yes, agree, with 1 & 2, I hadn’t thought about the second but of course it’s part of the thing.
It appears not only Credlin is being blamed for the situation: Savva is also being blamed for writing her book. She was daft not to ask for the protagonists’ comments, imo, but aside from that, and not having read it, I hear from reliable sources that her information is also well-sourced.
In my experience situations such as described by Savva don’t occur and continue without a great deal of compliance and enabling by everyone else in the particular workplace. It reminds me of Rudd in that he apparently terrorised all around him as apparently has Credlin, and I’m interested in the psychology that seems to have turned everyone into direct and indirect victims of these two.
I don’t think whether Abbott and Credlin actually had sexual congress is the central issue: it sounds as if their relationship was of an intimacy that was obsessive & consuming, whether actually sexual or not.
I wonder if we attach too much significance to man + woman = sex, rather than looking at other forms of bonding between people that can be far more destructive and long-term than a sexual affair.
In many ways a sexual affair is the most simple form of infidelity and betrayal: what Abbott & Credlin have sounds far more complex and insidious than just bonking.
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I concur.
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“No one presumed that the pre-budget cigars shared by Messrs Hockey and Corman were post-coital…”
Speak for yourself! What they gave birth to deserved whipping. 🙂
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Jennifer, please put up a new article with a photo/drawing/painting NOT of Tony Abbott!
Please!
My stomach is strong, but . . . .
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Still, is there a more fascinating subject for study than Abbott’s decision making processes and what drives them?
It is a really big question for society if our supposed best and brightest can get things so wrong on basic issues.
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The big question is how did such a twerp ever become regarded as *best and brightest.* We have weird criteria
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…I can’t say I’m happy with Niki re- awakening this interest in Abbott. He’s one of our great mistakes.
He was already a yesterday’s man yesterday.
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Trouble is, he makes Turnbull look better than he is.
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…precisely, that’s why I am not happy with Niki; we all, even the Libs, know that Abbott is bad, some still see Mal as our saviour.
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LOL
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Ah, DQ I have been very busy with other life matters, but I will do my utmost to get something else up soon. 🙂
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Boring, boring, Tony is boring. So there is evidence that Tony may have fucked the mother of his children three times. This only makes him a mother fucker. Nothing to see here move right along.
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But doesn’t that mean that on at least three occasions Tony allowed Margie her fulfilment through childbirth?
How fair do some of you want it?
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Dyson Haydon nominated him for a Rhodes scholarship,guess that helps.
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Never with the wife. Is he a closet gay and no one game enough to tell. Always with men
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This is the former self appointed Minister for Women. Couldn’t/wouldn’t appoint
any woman from his own government’s front bench to the role. What a disgrace!
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