Charles Adler: Maybe it's Chuck Cadman's fault

At least that's the impression I get from Charles Adler's "Questions that need to be asked about Cadmanscam." And by the way, I don't like that name for the affair, it seems to imply Chuck Cadman did something wrong.

But on to Adler, and a few of his particularly insulting theories:

3. Could this be a deathbed confection manufactured by the wounded pride of a man who in a moment of high vulnerability was being asked for something very valuable — his vote — and offered nothing more than a pig in the poke?

Ah, so Chuck made it up then, did he? Lashing out from his deathbed with a manufactured fairytle, lying to his family during his last days?

4. Is it possible that Chuck Cadman in his conversations with the Tories (We don't know how many there were. We can only speculate that the Tories couldn't have gone back to the well over and over again and then had two of their chief lieutenants pay him a formal visit unless they thought Cadman was giving them a window of opportunity.) simply couldn't get the Tories to meet his reasonable price?

Forget this stuff about Cadman being a man of honour I suppose, maybe Cadman had a price and the Conservative pockets just weren't deep enough.

5. Is it political correctness or just sloppy sentiments that persuade us that Cadman, a man of great integrity, had no price?

Apperantly someone actually having honour and integrity is a foreign concept to Charles Adler. He just can't process it. Maybe he's running in the wrong crowds.

14. Is it possible that when the Tories told Cadman they couldn't do a serious money transaction because doing so would have exposed them to charges of criminality, the entire episode left him feeling cheap, dirty and violated.

No, I guess Adler does believe in honour and integrity. Maybe Cadman wanted to be bought, but it was the Conservatives that had too much honour and integrity to do the buying.

It seems the right wingers, or at last one of them, have developed a new line of attack, after the other five or ten got shot down as more facts were exposed. Rather than defending Chuck Cadman and implying his wife, daughter and son-in-law are all liars, now they're going after Chuck Cadman himself.

I'd like to think even the Conservative Party won't be stupid enough to pick-up on Adler's theories, but I'm not going to hold my breath.

UPDATE: KNB also has some thoughts on Adler.

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Adler: Reality is what I say it is

Came across this rather amusing commentary at the National Post Web site from esteemed right-wing blowhard Charles Adler. It’s quite the twisted little bit of illogic to say the least.

Repeating the died in the wool mantra of the right that taxes are too high and tax cuts are a cure all, Charlie seems to downplay a recent Leger poll that said Quebecers don’t want tax cuts, and other polls of a similar nature. He doesn’t do a very good job though.

There are two secrets behind those polls. 1) They generally load the tax cut question with something like this: Would you like a tax cut or would you prefer that hospitals have enough doctors and nurses and medicine? 2) Many of the folks who respond to the pollsters tax cut questions don't pay taxes.

That’s not called a loaded question Charles, that’s called context.

The fact is, taxes pay for things, like services. People also want those services. So if you ask someone in isolation if they want a tax cut, they’ll say sure. If you ask someone in isolation if we should increase health spending, they’ll say sure. But ask someone if they’ll support cutting health spending to pay for a tax cut, or raising taxes to pay for more health spending, and you’ll get a much different question.

Asking either question in isolation would be useless. The questions as Charles laid out are entirely appropriate. Of course people favour tax cuts, the question is how important is it to them compared to other issues.

Once again, the Simpsons put it so well. This clip is from an episode where the teachers go on strike over wages. Fast-forward one minute in for a perfect illustration of the taxes vs. services debate, and the fallacy of Adler's argument.

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