Friday, February 29, 2008

Oh Pat Martin, you so crazy

Another day, loads more interesting revelations in the Cadman affair. It’s not looking good for the Harper Conservatives, to say the least.

Will this be a scandal that breaks outside of political geekdom into real Canada? The jury is still out, I think, but the potential is there. Today at work two colleagues with no interest in politics brought it up with me unprompted, and both were disgusted. And as Scott mentions a high-profile, U.S. blogger has picked-up on the story as well.

So, interesting times. I’ll try to put together a detailed recap of the day’s events tonight, as there is work to be done. In the mean time though, you can get the latest from Kady here and here, plus Steve.

Also, while the Conservatives are falsely chastising the Liberals for smearing a deceased Chuck Cadman (while they smear his widow), The Wingnuterer has a selection of comments from the folks at Small Dead Animals about Chuck Cadman right after he passed away from his battle with cancer. It’s a must-read post, and it’s disturbing. This comment is pretty representative:

Good riddance. Too bad you couldn't collect on the graft the Libs promised you in exchange for your vote, eh Chucky? Hahhhhhh.
Posted by: Sean at July 9, 2005 10:25 PM

Disgusting. As I said, more tonight. But before I go, as pissed-off as I am with the Liberal Party these days, I wanted to share reason #234 why I’ll probably never join the NDP: the wonder that is Pat Martin.

UPDATE: For the actual audio of Harper's interview with the reporter, where he confirms an offer was made to Chuck with his knowledge on behalf of the party, click to this story and scroll down for the audio.

Recommend this Post on Progressive Bloggers

8 comments:

Mark Dowling said...

Not that crazy - if I was an LPoC member and I thought that the scandal was big enough to bring down the Tories and install an alternative, I'd be wondering why other members of my party didn't release this information.

After all, if you're a Liberal, wouldn't you want the chance at avoiding Harper's choices over the last 12 months on Afstan, GST, childcare and so on, not to mention the chance to spend all the money that's been rolling into the national treasury?

Steve V said...

"Will this be a scandal that breaks outside of political geekdom into real Canada?"

Jeff, I think this story has all the intangibles, it's sexy. This is what Adam Radwanski of the G and M offered:

"For once, we may have stumbled onto a Canadian political scandal with enough of a human interest angle to really engage non-political people."

Judging by the interest I heard today, in the non-politcal geek class, I think he's right.

Greg said...

I was watching on CTV Newsnet and they were saying that the Conservatives were suggesting that the audio tape has been doctored. They also said that the Conservatives are doing it by spreading rumors rather than flat out saying it. You know what that means. Blogging Tories power, activate!

Just checked, we have one guy suggesting that the Cadmans are just in it for the profits from book sales and another who is comparing Mrs. Cadman to Winnie Mandela. Fun times.

Ted Betts said...

You know you are onto something really big when they react the way they have and their first reaction is to attack Cadman's widow: she's making money off the book, she's lying, she's been bought off by the Liberals. Disgusting.

RuralSandi said...

I don't really know about such matters, but could it be that a Confidentially Agreement was made by those who received early copies not to reveal its contents?

Just a thought.

I find it rather curious that the NDP aren't jumping all over this - is it part of a deal to trash Liberals? This is usually the kind of stuff Pat Martin wets his pants over.

Why are the NDP so quiet about it? Are they afraid people will look back to the Liberals now - or, did the NDP make some kind of deal with Harper to being the government down? I find the NDP suspicious.

Zorpheous said...

Holy shit!

I have had major traffic from the boys in Ottawa, the CBC, CTV, The Globe and Mail over that little post I collected of Kate's mad flying monkeys.

Now of course several of them are turning on Cadman, after they claimed it was in bad taste to soil the rep of an honest good man and politician. These guys are getting very desperate.

Will this brng down Harper? Who knows, but I can't help think about the bs spin they used during the Grewal Affair, and how about Emerson and a few of the Liberals they seemed to capture. Now this briber charge of Cadman.

WOW, in just two short years, Harper has managed to surpass the level of corruption that the Liberals took 13 years to achieve.

I won't mind a spring election,... it's nice in the spring time,... great time to do spring cleaning in Ottawa!

Gayle said...

sandi - maybe they do not want to give Mrs. Cadman any more coverage, given that she is running against an NDP MP?

RuralSandi said...

Never thought of that Gayle.

I would think though, that a confidenitality agreement of some sort would be required for someone to get an early copy of the book. Otherwise, the details could come out too early and ruin chances of good sales, etc.