If you throw enough mud some of it will stick.
There's plenty of dirt on the Australian Labor Party contained in a major NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) report released on Wednesday.
The two key Labor figures facing adverse findings - former NSW ministers Eddie Obeid and Ian Macdonald - have been expelled from the party and face criminal charges over the alleged corrupt granting of mining licences.
The federal coalition is keen to ensure the taint spreads all the way to Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's office.
"Today is a black day in the history of the Labor party," Opposition Leader Tony Abbott said.
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"The NSW disease has well and truly come to Canberra."
While there's no mention of Rudd in the 174-page ICAC document, it does spend three pages explaining how factions influence the NSW ALP.
These are the same factions that threw their significant weight behind Rudd's return to the federal leadership in June, and helped overthrow him three years earlier in favour of Julia Gillard.
One right-wing sub-faction "in effect ... had control over the ALP", ICAC said.
Rudd and Labor will also be concerned about another ICAC report expected in August, probably during the federal election campaign.
It will examine a coal exploration licence granted by Macdonald to a company run by ex-union boss John Maitland and entrepreneurs.
The inquiry called two senior federal MPs to the witness stand - NSW Senator Doug Cameron and former minister Greg Combet.
Two others, Stephen Conroy and Tony Burke, were also mentioned as having been offered free accommodation at Obeid's Perisher Valley ski lodge.
The ICAC hearings have been keenly followed by voters in NSW's 48 federal seats.
So it's not surprising one of the first things Rudd did when he returned to the prime ministership was to demand the NSW ALP branch ensure a "zero tolerance" approach to corruption and reduce the power of the factions.
Rudd's "disgust" at NSW Labor, and his insistence on a clean-up, is an attempt to head off any spill-over into the federal arena.
However, the damage to the Labor brand may have already been done - at least in NSW.
