Leadership spills and Gremlins - don't feed them after midnight Will he or won't he challenge again? The 1980s taught us three simple rules for dealing with Gremlins. Don't get them wet. Don't expose them to bright sunlight. And never, ever, feed them after midnight. If only those in the Rudd camp had listened. Gremlins and speculation of a leadership spill ... best not fed after midnight. Appearing to be the virtuous Gizmo, the cuddly and innocuous Mogwai which spawned the original crisis, Kevin Rudd also makes a great Spike, the Gremlin who led the charge to overtake the town. Throwing water on Gremlins just made them multiply. So too, with these rumours. Political commentators spend the evening discussing the denials, the non-denials, dissecting what wasn't said. By morning, politicians are responding to what was said the night before, the media made ravenous by the morning headlines quoting "unnamed sources" who have plated up more of the same. But it is too easy and too simplistic to blame the media. These rumours do come from somewhere. The whispers stretch from Canberra to Brisbane. Anyone plugged in, even just remotely, to the politics of politics has heard them, been fed them. Last week Mr Rudd told his colleagues to "pull your head in," which was juxtaposed with images of him receiving his usual rock star treatment while campaigning in Geelong not long after. This came after Joel Fitzgibbon, former Whip and noted Rudd supporter, mocked the government's talking points on national television and then seemingly went out of his way to discuss how "disaffected" voters were. Cap it off with photos of Labor MPs clearing out their offices and add in reports the Prime Minister's communications director, John McTernan, had offered his expertise elsewhere, and you don't just have sparks of speculation. You have a firestorm. Attempts to throw water on this latest round of rumours resulted in Julia Gillard and her deputy, Wayne Swan, defending their leadership roles while trying to bring attention to the Gonski education funding reforms in a stubborn, enemy-led state on Tuesday. The funding reform details, released to various news outlets the night before, barely rated a mention throughout the day. The denials of a leadership spill led the bulletins. Meanwhile, Mr Rudd was just a few kilometres away, making his presence known by staying low. Just after 4pm he posted a photo to social media, showing him with Parliamentary Secterary for the Arts Michael Danby at a Brisbane university. It took less than half an hour for the photo to gain 100 "likes." It took even less time for the first "#KR4PM" and "ily [I love you] so much KRudd" comments to be posted. And that's the greatest weapon in the leadership spill speculation arsenal; letting others do the talking for you. This is the third time major leadership speculation has hit the federal Labor party since February last year. To quote another master of subterfuge, "Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. The third time it's enemy action'. It is impossible to know what is actually happening in the Labor party. Different factions have different ideas. Different people have different interests. Self interest is at war with the wider interest. Which is meant to be that of the Australian people. Increasingly, they are being forgotten. In the end the way to kill the Gremlin menace was to throw light on the creatures. If this latest event was truly examined in the harsh light of day, it might be seen for what it is; more talk, more misdirection, more of the same. And still, one party continues to cannibalise itself, while its opposition just works on saying nothing.