Strip club outing hits Australian opposition chief

By Staff
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Google Oneindia News

CANBERRA, Aug 20 (Reuters) A drunken night at a New York strip club rattled the election hopes of Australia's popular opposition leader Kevin Rudd today and sparked accusations of a government smear campaign ahead of a vote tipped for November. Rudd, a Mandarin-speaking former diplomat and family-values Christian, admitted visiting Manhattan strip club Scores in 2003 with a fellow MP and the Australian editor of the New York Post.

Australian radio stations hummed on Monday with callers questioning whether an alcohol-fuelled night four years ago had dealt a fatal blow to Rudd's election ambitions, as the bookish 49-year-old told his wife he had been a ''bit of a goose''.

''On this occasion I had too much drink. But I am not by habit or by reputation or by instinct a heavy drinker,'' Rudd told Australian television.

Father-of-three Rudd has a strong lead over Prime Minister John Howard in polls, helped by his family credentials and vow to improve education and rein-in work laws.

But a weekend newspaper said Rudd was reprimanded by Scores management for touching strippers during his visit while the opposition Labor Party's then foreign spokesman.

Talkback radio callers, who strongly influence Australian politics, were divided today over the admission.

''It shows he's got some real blood in his veins,'' a male caller named Peter said, while a woman named Michelle told local radio: ''It doesn't change my views of him at all.'' But others said Rudd had been revealed as a hypocrite.

''I couldn't care less if he got a lap-dance every Friday afternoon, but don't suck up to the religious Right and then go to a titty bar,'' Perth man Ron Myers wrote on a news website.

Political sex-and-party scandals have dented the ambitions of several past Australian leaders.

Former prime minister Malcolm Fraser awoke without his trousers and wallet in a Memphis hotel after meeting a bar girl. Another leader, Bob Hawke, held a world beer drinking record and admitted to cheating on his wife.

Headlines reading ''Poll Dancer'' and ''I am a Goose'' greeted Rudd on Monday after the Scores excursion revelations.

Australian Christian Lobby Director Jim Wallace said the scandal was unlikely to harm Rudd's image with religious voters.

''I think this is another case of 'let those who are not guilty throw the first stone'. I think certainly Kevin Rudd is a good man, there's no doubt about that,'' he said.

Howard and Foreign Minister Alexander Downer refused to answer accusations the government leaked the story to newspapers as it scrambles to pull back Rudd's soaring popularity, while the Australians Greens said the issue was a political diversion.

''Four years ago Kevin Rudd got drunk and took himself into a strip club. Four years ago John Howard, sober, took Australia into the Iraq war. I think the electorate can judge which one did the more harm,'' Australian Greens Senator Bob Brown said.

REUTERS SW KP0927

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