Election Update: Playing the Waiting Game...what's a 9-letter word for "form of government?

The negotiations with the Independents go on...the talking head shows and columns are having a field day.  Clark and Dawe, my favorite satirists, capture the mood as always.  The other night a friend theorized that there might be ANOTHER election because no deal sufficient to satisfy the Greens and Independents can be reached.  He think that if another election were held, those that were "punishing" Labor and the Liberals by voting for the Greens or others may say to themselves, "OK, I've had my protest vote, now let's get on with it."

The Greens are famous for not compromising on what is essentially a single issue for them - the environment (as you might imagine).

However, the government continues to run and this may have something to do with the fact that unlike the U.S., most of the senior positions in the government are NOT political appointments.  There's no "Plum Book" listing of available political jobs here.  The Caretaker Government is somewhat like what occurs between a US Presidential election (the losing Administration appointees have either already left or are about to) and the 20 January Inauguration.  That's when our government is actually run by those all those lazy, inefficient, time-serving government bureaucrats (who actually know something about what they are doing) you all like to complain about from time to time:

Wikipedia:
In Australia the term caretaker government is used to describe the government during a period that starts when the parliament is prorogued by the Governor-General prior to a general election, and continues for a short period after the election, until the next ministry is appointed. The caretaker government is expected to conduct itself in accordance with a series of well-defined conventions that are administered by the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet,^[1] although there is no law compelling the caretaker government to do so.
Under normal circumstances, there is no separate appointment of a caretaker government. The existing government simply assumes "caretaker mode". During the 1975 Australian constitutional crisis, the Governor-General, Sir John Kerr, appointed a new government headed by Malcolm Fraser, subject to Fraser's agreement that he would immediately advise a general election, and his government would operate on a caretaker basis in the meantime. This was a unique set of circumstances, leading to a unique solution.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caretaker_government_of_Australia

So no major decisions are allowed to be made under the caretaker government unless it directly affects things that can't wait, like Afghanistan, troop force protection (like approving the purchase of armored vehicles or flak jackets), etc.  So, it's really not that bad and frankly it simply validates the system.  Like they say, democracy may be messy and disorganized, but it's superior to every other messy, disorganized (and frequently violent) system...more later (if) things develop.  The major winners here will be the kransky stands and the school athletic teams trying to fund those new warmup suits if they decide to hold another election.

By the way, if any of you get a posting like this more than once it means I have done something to correct an error or have added information to it.  You get it automatically because you are on auto distribution - there's only 10 of you, because that's all I am allowed to put on auto distribution.  I have put mostly family on auto distribution.  Everybody else has to say to themselves "Hang on...I haven't checked Chuck and Debbie's blog lately to get the REAL story on the Australian Presidential Election or to check on the state of birdlife in their backyard..." (as I type this, it sounds like an aviary back there - yesterday we had sulphur-crested cockatoos).