Costello's Six Degrees of Preparation

It appears the son of baptists wants to be Australia's next Prime Minister. Treasurer Peter Costello asked John Howard to make way for him after details of a strange arrangement became public last week. As Costello tells it, and he has a witness, in late 1994, when the Liberals were a mess, the younger man allowed Howard an unhindered run at becoming party leader. In return, and the P.M. disputes this, Howard promised to retire after serving a term and a half (four to five years). "My parents always told me," Costello said, "if you have done nothing wrong you have...