THE WOMAN WITHIN

A business partner describes a previously unknown side to disgraced former West Australian Labor premier Brian Burke:

Mr Grill said if Mr Burke were an ordinary person he would feel "suicidal" as a result of all the scrutiny he has received in the past 18 months.

He painted an extraordinary picture of his friend, saying he had a very pronounced feminine side.

"He is highly, highly intuitive, it's just the female side of him," he said.

"But because of that he is highly strung, he is highly emotional, he loses his temper at times ... he does all of the things that you often find a highly-strung woman doing."

Well, that explains the affairs with Alan Bond and Laurie Connell; some women just can't resist men of dubious character.

Update: Current WA premier Alan Carpenter on Channel Nine's Sunday:

"There is trail of dead bodies in his wake, which should alert everybody to how unwise it is to deal with Brian Burke."

The Burke saga is nowhere near its end; Kevin Rudd could come to regret attempting to tap into Burke's influence machine.