Labor's poll planners: savvy analyst and ruthless spin doctor

And Secord? Once a spinner maybe always a spinner, in which case he might be sprucing up his notorious truth trolley to wheel into Canberra's press gallery. But he's also probably memorised every word uttered by tobacco flack Nick Naylor in last year's movie Thank You For Smoking, including the memorable comment: if you want an easy job, go and work for the Red Cross.

And remember sexy Nick's dinner with sultry investigative journalist Heather Hallows, approximately as damaging as John Della Bosca's lunch with Maxine McKew?

Heather: Nick, why do you do this? What motivates you?

Nick: You really want to know? Population control.

Heather: You're bad!

Nick: Everyone's got a mortgage to pay.

Voiceover: The yuppie Nuremberg defence.

Labor needs that kind of editorial intelligence on its scriptwriting team for election 2007, and beyond.