Unlike the Liberal Party the ALP rarely loses sight of the fact that ideas matter. Unfortunately leftist theories tend not to be theories at all but tendentious tracts devoid of genuine intellectual content whose main theme is invariably one of revolutionary progress. Nevertheless, leftists do understand one thing: ideas matter. It’s a pity that Kroger and his sock puppets like the cowardly Julian Sheezel and the backstabbing Tony Barry cannot grasp this fundamental fact. (I can still picture the appalling spectacle of Sheezel grovelling on all fours to the Howard-hating Steve Mayne of Crikey)

In a word, Mr Costello, the problem right now is Mr Kroger and his gang of spineless incompetents. Bracks is a weak leader who’s Government is highly vulnerable on several fronts. Yet the Liberal Party has failed to dent his popularity because it is unable to change the public’s perception that he and his Government is by far the superior alternative.

There are two reasons for this failure: One is that Kroger’s rolodex approach to politics does not appreciate that perceptions are a crucial part of the problem. For this blue blood and his Toorak clique only social connections count. You can call this a grossly unfair charge but it’s not me you have to convince but the grassroots, more and more of whom are finally getting the message. The second reason is Kroger’s penchant for promoting lickspittles who treat those beneath them with undisguised contempt.

Like it or not Costello, your little mate, despite his considerable wealth and his very rich pals, is beginning to look like a loser. And political parties don’t like losers. Let me give you a little example of the brilliant Mr Kroger’s political wizardry. I have already related the story of how after the last election debacle Kroger confidently assured a television reporter that all was not lost. The Labor Party would as usual screw the economy up and then the electorate would come crawling back to Liberal Party. And this little masterpiece is on tape.

This brilliant strategist thinks he’s going to do a Pericles and let Labor batter itself into defeat while the Liberal Party huddles behind its Toorak walls waiting for a distressed polis to call for their liberation. Well, Mr Smarty Pants, it just ain’t going to work. It didn’t work for Pericles and it is not going to work for you. And Pericles was a thousand times the man that Kroger and his crew of bungling lackeys will ever be. Labor is getting stronger and is successfully holding the line, at least in public, while the Liberal Party thrashes around in a political morass of its own making while Kroger’s flunky’s think they can insult Party members with impunity.

What is to be done? For a start Kroger, Sheezel, Barry and the Toorak Set can stop treating ordinary members like something you scrape off the bottom of your shoe. They can stop the insulting behaviour that tells members they are not good enough to address their betters.

They can tell the Liberal Speakers Group that all are welcome to address the Party who have something of value to impart to the membership. They can eliminate the outrageously snobbish rule that one has to be an “important and influential figure”, meaning one of the in-crowd, before the imperious Kroger will allow you near his precious little microphone.

He can also grow sufficient backbone to make his email address public so that Party members can directly email him their suggestions and opinions. He can start by holding seminars instead of talkfests that are designed to promote himself and his pals. He can decide that the grassroots membership, the ones who do the basic work at election time, are more important than his friends on the HR Nicholls Society committee and their self-celebratory annual dinners.

In short, he and his cronies can start by treating the membership with the respect that it has earned, not through social connections but through the hard work it has put into the Party.

He should order the likes of Sheezel and Barry to do their damn homework and show individual party members some semblance of respect. A good start would be for Sheezel and Barry to cease treating informed criticism with undisguised disdain. In addition, Kroger should also tell this pair that their first duty is to serve the Party and not use it and its members to promote their own ambitions

These are just a few steps Kroger could take to try and rejuvenate the Party. Regrettably I sense that Hubris would prevent such elementary measures from being implemented. You see, Kroger’s petty ego comes before the interests of the Party.

His hubris accounts for another phenomenon that is damaging the Party’s recovery. Kroger has no genuine understanding of the power of the internet. Therefore his natural impulse is to appoint people who know even less than he does. Another brilliant tactic. The result is that the Victorian Liberal Party has no effective independent presence on the internet, the significance of which is completely lost on this crowd, particularly Sheezel and Barry.

It is embarrassingly clear that the KLP is beyond reform. The principle reason, and a very nasty one, why Kroger cannot make the necessary changes is that he and his gang have an almost uncontrollable ingrained horror of mixing with the hoi polloi.

That’s your answer, Costello, so do something about leaning on your little mate to get off his backside and make a stand for liberty. He could start by publicly defending two Christian pastors who are suffering persecution for their Christian beliefs at the hands of Muslim bigots who have the full support of the Bracks’ Government.

Liberals for Free Speech has been recently formed by grassroots Libs to defend our basic liberties. As expected, no member of the Party’s self-appointed elite has even deigned to give it the slightest moral support, including Kroger, Sheezel and Barry. So what does that tell you about this trio?

Good God, Kroger, if Howard and Costello have the guts to stand up and make it clear where they stand on Muslim militancy and multiculturalism the least you and your stooges can do is raise your own banner in defence of the pastors.

Gerard Jackson is Brookes’ economics editor