Party Games: Final sitting of parliament will be longest fortnight of Julia Gillard's political life Kevin Rudd arrives at Canberra Airport on July 17, ahead of a tense week in parliament. AS much as Julia Gillard and her praetorian guard won't like it, this week in Canberra will be all about Kevin. The three groups in the Labor Caucus will be thinking about former Prime Minister Rudd for slightly different reasons. Those who have decided to back him - some of whom made that decision three years ago - will be wishing and hoping for a way to make him leader. Those who are sticking with Gillard - come hell, high water or pestilence - will just worry about him and his band of sometimes amateurish Machiavellis. The all important third group - the terrified MPs facing probable unemployment come September - are thinking one thing: is it worth all the trouble and strife of switching to Rudd for an uncertain outcome. These MPs know Rudd will almost certainly improve the Labor vote but they're unsure by how much - the 5 to 7 per cent suggested in weekend polls is almost certainly an anticipation of going back to that good feeling of 2007 rather than a memory of the unhappier times in the first five months of 2010. These MPs are searching their every instinct. They are trying to have a cold blooded self assessment of the electoral chances they and their party face. They are also weighing the possible outcomes of doing nothing and doing something. To use an old Ruddism, they are at a fork in the road. The Rudd army is not making it easy for anyone, putting out demands that some of Gillard's most loyal lieutenants - Greg Combet, Jenny Macklin and Penny Wong - have to publicly step up and disown their woman. That does not come easy but these are not easy times. Today, no one was putting money on that happening but the momentum is slightly Rudd's way. For the Gillard forces they have to pull it back. Everything they've tried so far has failed, right up to the spectacularly stupid Women for Gillard stunt. A good performance in Parliament might do it but it is going to be high wire stuff for Gillard. These will be the longest eight days of her 13-and-a-half years in Canberra.