The marketing of Mr Rudd - integrity problem

I recently had a discussion with a fellow voter about the political culture in Australian politics.
It shows the trap you can fall into when you are moraly questionable.

The fellows arguement was that "..., politics simply doesn't posses any principal figures who would conform to the sort of straight-up honesty and integrity that you imply Rudd ought to have....".

I suggest why then bother defending the integrity of Mr Rudd, while attacking the integrity of other political leaders?

A contributer to the debate made the following comment.

" This is of course the issue. If we are prepared to brush off integrity questions about one side of politics, shouldn't we also brush them off for the other side ?

If this is the case shouldn't the converse also be true?

If we are prepared, as a voting public, to lambaste the coaltion over the most minute detail, should we not in the interests of a balanced debate and pursuit of fair comparison apply the same critical analysis to the opposition?

To not do this is to hold one side of politics to a higher standard than the other."

'Brand Labor' Integrity is important, regognise it, deal with it?

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