RMR: The Harper Misdirection Method

So effective, you’ll believe it yourself!

And seeing as we touched briefly on “literacy tests” and such yesterday, here’s a little civics lesson from Rick Mercer explaining “How Parliament Works” and what parliamentarians do:

Tora! Tora! Tora!

In the spirit of co-operation and reaching out to other parties in the House during this time of economic crisis, the Conservatives have decided to… ATTACK!!! It seems that’s all these pathological nitwits know how to do.

On Tuesday, the Tories’ national campaign organizer sent out a fundraising letter slamming the Liberals, saying Ignatieff was “parachuted” into the leader’s job in a “stunning and unprecedented demonstration of Liberal contempt for our democratic rights.”

Doug Finley wrote a letter soliciting “emergency donations” to help “crack the coalition,” a copy of which was sent to media outlets.

“Not only was the Liberal/NDP/Bloc coalition not elected to govern this country, but the person who would become Canada’s prime minister wasn’t even the leader of a federal party during the last election and may not even be elected by the Liberal (or any) party’s membership,” he wrote, adding Canadians “most certainly didn’t elect Michael Ignatieff as prime minister.”

“Cracks in the coalition are already starting to show,” Finley says. “We need to drive that wedge home and convince Canadians of all political stripes that this coalition does nothing but weaken our nation.”

How lame. I liked this comment from someone responding to the Star article:

Doug Finley saying that crowning Micheal Ignatieff was “stunning and unprecedented demonstration of Liberal contempt for our democratic rights.” Finley is responsible for trampling the democratic rights of Conservative riding associations across Canada by vetoing the grassroots candidates and parachuting in party faithful. Of course the public has a memory about 30 seconds long, and won’t remember these little bits from previous elections, and the Tories can’t see their own hypocrisy for their self-righteousness.

Indeed.

Stephen Hypocrite

The Dear Leader… hoisted on his own petard.

h/t: Impolitical

Update: Enjoy the apostasy! Olaf is in fine form with this one.

Tory Tape Worms

These gormless, unethical nitwits really shouldn’t be allowed anywhere near recording devices of any sort.

The NDP says it may pursue criminal charges after the Conservatives covertly listened in, taped and distributed audio of a closed-door NDP strategy session.

Priceless. As is this elaboration by Thomas Mulcair in the same article concerning the now infamous letter from Harper to the Governor General in 2004 demonstrating the rank hypocrisy of the Conservatives:

As for the substance of the call, Mulcair said the talks with the Bloc were perfectly normal consultations between parties in a minority government. They began only after the government’s economic update was delivered last Thursday, he said.

And Mulcair pointed as an example to consultations that took place between Layton, Harper and the Bloc’s Gilles Duceppe in September 2004 when the Liberals were freshly installed as a minority government.

Harper, who was leader of the Opposition at that time, held lengthy discussions with Layton and Duceppe aimed at supplanting Paul Martin’s Liberal government without an election in the fall of 2004.

Those talks did not invoke a coalition, but rather revolved around replacing the elected Liberal minority with a Conservative government led by Harper and supported by the New Democrats and Bloc on an issue-by-issue basis.

So much for the undemocratic “coup d’état” talking point being flogged by certain Conservative “blowhards” (who shall remain nameless to save them the embarrassment of their own idiocy).

Update: Jeff has the video of Mulcair’s press conference this afternoon.

Bonus snark from Scott Brison talking on Newsworld this morning: “I knew that Stephen Harper had the policies of George W. Bush, but I was shocked and appalled to see that he’s got the ethics of Richard Nixon.” (Or words to that effect — a loose transcription from memory.)

Attention: Conservative Hypocrites

To all of those Tory supporters fuming with outrage at the possible “overthrow” of Harper’s minority government in an “undemocratic coup” and who are especially aggrieved at the thought of the Bloc’s participation in a progressive coalition government, please read the following letter from your Dear Leader to then Governor General Adrienne Clarkson dated September 9, 2004:

As leaders of the opposition parties, we are well aware that, given the Liberal minority government, you could be asked by the Prime Minister to dissolve the 38th Parliament at any time should the House of Commons fail to support some part of the government’s program. We respectfully point out that the opposition parties, who together constitute a majority in the House, have been in close consultation. We believe that, should a request for dissolution arise this should give you cause, as constitutional practice has determined, to consult the opposition leaders and consider all of your options before exercising your constitutional authority. Your attention to this matter is appreciated.

That letter was signed by all three opposition leaders: Gilles Duceppe, Jack Layton and Stephen Harper.

“No More Sitting on Our Hands”

Good. It’s about time.

Make or break, Libs… If you take a fall on this one, you’ll effectively be signing your own death warrant.

Liberal MP Michael Ignatieff, the presumed front runner in the race to succeed Mr. Dion, and his main rival, Bob Rae, refused to speculate about the impact a defeat of the government might have on their leadership aspirations. But both used uncompromising language to denounce the fiscal update.

“One step at a time. But I will tell you that I’ve got ice-water in my veins on this one,” Mr. Ignatieff said in an interview.

“I’m utterly unintimidated and undeterred by this stuff and the caucus is in the same mood . . . . [Harper] has misread the mood if he thinks that the Liberal caucus is going to cave on this matter. No way. No way.”

Similarly, Mr. Rae said the Tories are “deliberately creating a political crisis in order to avoid dealing with an economic crisis.” He said there’s “no public policy benefit at all” to the move to scrap public subsidies for parties.

“It’s just absolute bloody-minded meanness that’s motivating them and it can’t be allowed to stand.”

Trust the Conservatives to leverage an economic crisis for partisan political advantage. How about putting “country first” (to ironically borrow a phrase from John McCain) and just getting on with measures that will help mitigate the effects of the downturn rather than crassly seeking to opportunistically undermine one’s political opponents.

Yer Deficit Battlin’ “Conservatives”

Gosh darn those profligate, high-flyin’ Conservatives…

Some federal travellers can’t seem to get to London, England, for less than $6,000, even though economy seats were available for $1,000 to $2,000. In our analysis of 60,000 travel records over four years, we found $18,000 flights to Australia, $7,000 flights to Paris, $11,000 flights to Indonesia and $8,000 flights to Switzerland.

Not to worry — problem solved:

PMO spokesman Kory Teneycke says the number of political aides allowed to travel with a minister will be limited to two.

And he says the government is considering a plan to encourage public servants to fly economy class.

Oh and besides, the Liberals were worse, so there!

When, oh when will the Conservatives ever tire of this supremely feeble excuse?

“It’s Completely Different”

Well of course it is, silly. It only looks like the kind of pricey vote-buying that Stephen Harper pledged to avoid this campaign. (A pledge that he made after having already unloaded $20 billion in goodies over the last couple of months…)

Hmmm. Funny how the explanation of promises having already been accounted for in the “fiscal framework” never quite seemed to fly with Harper when it was Paul Martin making the promises that weren’t really promises… But again, that was completely different.

Stephen Harper: On Negative Ads

I thought it might be instructive at this early juncture in the election campaign to take a little trip down memory land and see what Stephen Harper had to say earlier this year about “negative advertising” in politics.

Earlier in the year, this is what Harper said about negative ads: “My advice to people who work on advertising plans is to make sure that the ads first of all are truthful, if they’re not truthful, I think you’ve got a big problem…”

Maybe you can reconcile the two. Seems that one or the other is a lie.

Already Counting Their Chickens

What an amusing thing to say. Aren’t these the same folks that have been sanctimoniously nattering on forever about the supposed “arrogance” of the Liberals and of anyone who backs them? And yet, here they are, already declaring victory with absolute certitude and braying like a pack of cartoon hyenas at the imagined pummeling of their political enemies that’s confidently believed to be imminent. And all this before the writ has even dropped. Seems a tad presumptuous, not to mention… Oh, I dunno, what… arrogant?

Perhaps a Harper victory is a foregone conclusion, but I think you’re going to find that Dion isn’t quite the hapless, callow wimp that you seem to think he is. Or at least I hope so. Personally, I’m very much looking to him to be a scrappy fighter and a far more determined foe than might have been expected by those who’s impressions have been shaped largely by a steady stream of Conservative Party propaganda over the past few years. We shall see, I guess…

Keep in mind that a lot of unforeseen things can happen in an election. If as Lord Riveaulx famously said, “Forty-eight hours is a long time in politics,” then six weeks is a virtual eternity.