The hatred was visceral. A loathing so deep, so mutual, there was no way the two would ever be reconciled. On occasions it manifested itself in public outbursts so shrill, witnesses were left speechless. They were bitter political rivals out to destroy each other. But they weren't from different parties. Instead, they belonged to warring factions within the one party.

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I'm reminded of their poisonous antics daily, as the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption's Operation Rosny lays bare the scheming and chicanery behind another bruising factional war within the NSW Liberal Party.

The public hearings are delving into the way money from prohibited donors financed the efforts of a conservative Christian group called The Reformers to stack local branches and influence preselections.

Newly minted federal president of the Liberal Party Tony Abbott, himself a seasoned right-wing factional warrior whose best days are behind him, tried to dismiss the ICAC probe into an internal party squabble as a factional hit job.

Abbott's dismissal papers over the role allegedly played by fugitive developer and banned donor Jean Nassif in financing The Reformers, which ICAC is also investigating. Phone taps revealed Nassif, now hiding out in Lebanon, gloating about the influence he believed he had over the NSW government.

The branch-stacking, the backstabbing, the blind ambition of young milk-fed Liberals are all depressingly familiar. A few years ago I watched it play out on my own turf as Gareth Ward, now in jail for sexual assault, went to war with John Howard's Class of 96 veteran federal MP for Gilmore Joanna Gash.

Ward enlisted the support of a coterie of well-groomed, similarly milk-fed Young Liberals to erode support for Gash. Gash, in turn, relied on the backing of the local Liberal gerontocracy. It was a bitter contest that endured long after Gash resigned from federal parliament. Her successor and close friend,........

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