Friday, May 18, 2007

On leaks

As Darren observes the Conservatives are beginning to leak like a sieve, and the latest leak is particularly mind-boggling:

A secret guidebook that details how to unleash chaos while chairing parliamentary committees has been given to select Tory MPs.


Running some 200 pages including background material, the document - given only to Conservative chairmen - tells them how to favour government agendas, select party-friendly witnesses, coach favourable testimony, set in motion debate-obstructing delays and, if necessary, storm out of meetings to grind parliamentary business to a halt.


Leaks from the bureaucracy are one thing. Can’t do much about that, besides sending in the RCMP to haul out low level civil servants in handcuffs to try to foster an environment of fear. But leaks like this one clearly came from the political side, either an MP or a political staffer, as they’d be the ones with access to this kind of thing.

And that’s a leak of a different feather. When you’re starting to get these kinds of leaks on the political side of the house that should send you a serious message: you’ve got problems. If your own partisans are upset and disgusted enough to leak something that casts the party in a negative light it’s time to look in the mirror and reconsider the way you’re doing business.

Or, you can tighten things down even harder, bust heads, launch a which-hunt, and make things even worse. Want to take bets on which way Steve will go? Look for a story on Hedy Fry’s nefarious leadership organizing in the weekend National Post.

Defect, deflect…

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5 comments:

burlivespipe said...

Sounds like a case for RCMP handcuffs and conveniently-timed heel dragging, with no charges laid.
If this isn't an indictment into the CONs charade for minority governance, I don't know what it. But I can imagine the caterwalling spin from the Tory-tooners.

JimBobby said...

Whooee! I been sayin' it fer a while -- the Cons are makin' sure minority gummint don't work just so's they got a better excuse fer askin' fer a majority.

What this leak shows is that the Con gummint is actively sabotaging the work of Parliament. This oughta be bigass headline news in every paper in Canada. The gummint's s'posed to be workin' to get things done an' here's 200 pages of proof that they're workin' to make sure things don't get done.

The betrayal of Canajuns trust shown in this document is completely unacceptable and should be denounced by left and right, alike. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong.

JimBobby

Steve said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
West Coast Progressive said...

what's the fry story about?

Jeff said...

WCP, that's a joke on my part, implying that the Cons will plant a Liberal leadership drama story, like the recent Rae/Iggy/Kennedy pieces, to deflect attention from their shortcomings...