Where, oh where, could Howard have learned such a trick? And why didn’t he adopt Karl’s skill in execution?

The election strategy of the Australian prime minister, John Howard, was in turmoil today after members of his Liberal party were caught red-handed in an inept dirty tricks campaign.

Bogus flyers from a fake organisation called the Islamic Australia Federation were distributed through the letterboxes of voters in a marginal seat, claiming the Labor opposition sympathised with Islamic terrorists.

How inept were they? Well, how about rendering Allah Akbar, God is Great, as Ala Akba? Evidently the husbands of a retiring candidate and her replacement did not have a high opinion of the intelligence of their target audience. Obvious authoritarian conservatives, and probably Christianists to boot.