I doubt whether Clarke and Dawe would take the gig, but John Howard ought to offer them a consultancy on political strategy. Last night’s 7:30 report segment finds the range on Rudd and makes some big hits.
First the frame:

JOHN CLARKE: Let me ask you a question Brian. Are we in this country thoroughly sick of being told what the agenda is and told what to think? Or Brian, do we take the view that we’re not children and we don’t need to be treated like children?
BRIAN DAWE: Yes, yes we do. But this is not what I asked you, Mr Rudd.
JOHN CLARKE: Am I interested in what you asked me Brian? Do I look as if I’m interested in what you asked me? Do I look as if I’m yearning for further information about what you actually asked me?

Then the execution:

BRIAN DAWE: I can’t do anything.
JOHN CLARKE: Is this, for example, am I just a conceited twerp you might ask.
BRIAN DAWE: Yes. Well…
JOHN CLARKE: That, Brian, that question is beneath you. You’re better than that Brian. These are very, very good questions.
BRIAN DAWE: He won’t shut up.

And then this morning on the ABC news website, as if on cue:

Mr Rudd says it is disturbing to hear that irrigators will not be able to draw water from the Murray-Darling system unless it rains soon.
“It’s not the Howard Government’s fault in itself, I mean Mr Howard can’t make it rain, I understand that,” he said.
“But for half a decade or more the Government has been in a state of denial on climate change and water.”

So, if only we’d signed-up to Kyoto there’d be enough water in the Murray-Darling for everyone. I think Clarke and Dawe could do a lot with that, especially as the impact of Kyoto on the emissions of CO2 has been, for all practical intents and purposes, zero. And then last year, the Labor Party view of the Murray-Darling appears to have been that we needed to release more water for environmental flows.