How stupid do they think we are?

The recent denial by Attorney General Ruddock that the bombing of the embassy in Jakarta was related to the Iraq war is too absurd. Whether or not such plotting was going on before the war is beside the point, the war clearly did nothing to alleviate the likelihood of terrorist violence.
What disturbs me about Mr Ruddock, as true now as when he was Minister of Immigration, is how he construes facts to make very twisted conclusions. Now, not all conclusions need to be straight-forward and/or obvious but we do need to apply common sense. What is more, you don't want Ministers of the Crown, whoever they are, telling the average intelligent citizen that their well-thought-through conclusions are just stupid. Which is, I would contend, what we seem to get when a senior Minister tells us that the obvious conclusion is not true, and that a bizarre conclusion is more likely to be the answer. I don't think so!
We see it, of course, in the polemic of Minister Vanstone too. Who can blatantly stand as she did over the weekend and say...I am the responsible Minister, but I will take no responsibility for the fact that my department subcontracted out the transport of detainees over hundreds of kilometres to an organisation that would not let the passengers stop for medical help, toilet stops, or anything else
Ruddock would have been capable of such statements, too, when he held the same portfolio. And maybe what we witness is the sadness of the learnt behaviour picked up while being a Minister required to defend the indefensible.
Vanstone can say over and over again I am the RESPONSIBLE minister of a department which continues and continues and continues to be dysfunctional....this is not just blame the previous Minister stuff...and it continues under my 'leadership'. I believe ministerial accountability has long gone out of the window. Don't sit around holding your breath waiting for a minister to resign because of a stuff up they should have prevented.
We are witnessing the sadness of a country with a weak opposition, unable or unwilling to hold the government of the day to account. This is not good government!