Just Don't Know What To Think About The Australian Leadership Change

But reading this, it sounds like a bad TV miniseries gone amok. Maybe that's just how politics is!:

LAST week, Parliamentary Secretary for Disabilities Bill Shorten went to see Julia Gillard and told her to challenge Kevin Rudd.

...Shorten, the ambitious former union boss from the Victorian Right, told the loyal deputy prime minister he was not "yet" talking on behalf of his entire faction.

But he assured Gillard he was confident that if she made a strong play for the leadership, he could deliver her the numbers to win.

The secret conversation came after weeks of meetings, organised by Victorian senator David Feeney and NSW senator Steve Hutchins, at which Labor MPs savaged Rudd's leadership.

...Their hatred for him was becoming so strong many were saying they wanted to destroy his leadership immediately.

...So Gillard has known for a week that the Right factions were backing her.

Her allies say she declined Shorten's offer, arguing it was not the right time to strike. But the seed Shorten had planted grew. As MPs went home for the weekend, many were anxiously anticipating Newspoll. They knew that the results would give them ammunition to go for Rudd's throat.

...Despite Rudd's confident public face, he was acutely aware that MPs were coming after him.

...It was reports that Mr Rudd had sent Jordan to canvass backbenchers on his leadership - in the process questioning Gillard's loyalty - that was the last straw.

One source said the anger was palpable after former minister Bob Debus received a text message from Jordan during the caucus meeting on Tuesday.

The text essentially said "thanks for speaking and defending Kevin". The impersonal and bizarre message was seen as a nervous Rudd shoring up his numbers against Gillard - while she was still maintaining her loyalty.

Gillard was angered by the report and by news that Debus had been text messaged during caucus. She regarded Rudd questioning of her loyalty as treacherous. It entrenched her view that Rudd was out of control.

...Her numbers were swelling. Frontbenchers were all falling her way. They told her to either fix the crisis in government and tell Rudd to fundamentally change, or take over - immediately.

She made a commitment to see Rudd. She went to Defence Minister John Faulkner - the party's elder statesman and peace broker - to complain. She told him it was unacceptable - that Rudd was out of control and she was furious.

...Before question time on Wednesday, Rudd walked into Gillard's office to accuse her of undermining his leadership. She told him she was furious.

They agreed to meet after question time. Gillard was intense during question time. In hindsight it was obvious that something was weighing heavily on her.

...One factional powerbroker says that after that "It was like watching a bushfire; suppressed rage which sped up and got momentum".

Gillard and Faulkner then walked into Rudd's office where they endured a lengthy meeting. He wanted them to back off, Gillard became even more resolved to take him on.

...At yesterday's caucus meeting Rudd stood up and said he believed Gillard and he had worked out a compromise in their first meeting last night. "I thought we were capable of working our way through but when she returned she called it on."

He was implying that the factional bosses had pushed it - and killed a potential compromise.

He also effectively blamed Gillard and Wayne Swan for the decision to shelve the emissions trading scheme, a key policy reversal which triggered his decline in the polls. He blamed the troubled resources super-profits tax on Swan.

But those close to Gillard said she never undertook to work with him. After Gillard emerged from the meeting with Rudd - and the challenge was on, Anthony Albanese, who was once the man who counted numbers for Kim Beazley, offered to count numbers for Rudd.

...Late Wednesday night he went and delivered Rudd the devastating news that his leadership was over, that his numbers had collapsed.

...Rudd shocked many yesterday when he stood aside and didn't defend his leadership.

He gave a sombre speech, which was both "statesmanlike" but also dug the knife into Gillard and Swan - essentially blaming them for the RSPT and the abandonment of an ETS.

He stopped two or three times to fight back tears.

At the end of his speech, he was approached by MPs and frontbenchers who shook his hand and thanked him for his work.