Abbott's self-deception

Opposition leader Tony Abbott boasted to yesterday's Liberal federal convention in Canberra he had received a call from former Liberal prime minister John Howard on Wednesday night as the leadership coup played out congratulating him for the demise of Kevin Rudd.

''He said: 'You have achieved the greatest prize that any opposition leader can, you have secured the scalp of a prime minister.' '' Mr Abbott said.

Talking to others last week he was claiming that "the unions got rid of Rudd" or he was recycling Bob Menzies' old catch cry claiming that "the faceless men of the Labor Party" were the ones.

With Abbott what he says depends on who he thinks he's talking to! Then again he's warned us that he doesn't necessarily always tell the truth. Here he is eye-to-eye with his best mate, the former opposition leader he shafted just a little while back, Malcolm Turnbull: