Rudd does not have a big ego.

And a little ego is a big plus for maintaining a close transtasman relationship.

And as for Howard, In many ways he was without ego ... What bedevilled the Australia-New Zealand relationship in the past was often a lot of ego.

But the ego is there to moderate that hedonistic id and the overwhelming restrictions of the super ego ... so this is all a little difficult to comprehend.

Perhaps this is a close as Helen gets to the denigration of the person via the humming of the "Colonel Bogey March".