Who made the call?

This Political Potshots post nicely captures some obvious concerns about the ethics of the "Noble One"' taping her phone conversation with Michael Wernick.  As does this one by Excited Delirium.

To have recorded the call was egregiously unethical.  Did she initiate the phone conversation that she inappropriately and unethically record?  If she so, that exponentially increases her wrongdoing.Recommend this Post

Are JWR/JP and friends familiar with the story of the Cambridge 5?

So JWR has shown herself to be an unethical as well as an incompetent MoJaAG.  I expect JWR/JP, their co-conspirators and useful idiots in the Opposition parties, media and political consulting firms are enjoying the blowback against the government.

But their joy will be short lived.  Cunning though those involved might be, gaming this whole plan out isn't their strong suit (e.g. having an anti-budget filibuster in which they ingeniously voted to provide the Liberals with an entire election's worth of attack ads).  Eventually, even Andrew Scheer will realize that if the Terrible Twins will connive and plot against the person who brought them into government and installed them in plum Cabinet posts they will do the same to him.  Political consultants who praise the unethical recording of phone calls will wonder if St. Jody has been doing the same to them.  Most of the writers at MacLean's and the Globe and Mail will start to wonder if the are part of the plot or will the One Born to Be Noble One (or some other undemocratic hogwash title) toss them under the next convenient bus.

Once Philby, Burgess, Maclean et al. defected to Moscow they discovered they were not Colonels in the KGB.  The KGB didn't trust anyone who was so disloyal.  The traitors live's were sad and lonely.  They read the London papers.  They subsisted on a minimum stipend and allowance of Lea & Perrins.  But they were pariahs in the Soviet Union.  This is the fate of JWR/JP.

Perhaps the Cambridge 5 realized their folly.  Their fate was still the same.  Do the Mean Girls realize theirs?  At this point, I couldn't care less.Recommend this Post

Maybe JT's sin was throwing good money after bad.

Perhaps it can be traced back to the whole non-egalitarian "Woman born pf noble people" hogwash.  It could be the whole SNC-Lavalin canard Jody Wilson-Raybould (JWR) instigated.  Regardless of the source of the leak, her unprecedented recommendations for a new Chief Justice for the SCC seemed very much at odds with a progressive Liberal government.

While I think the source must be carefully considered, this editorial raises concerns.  And what about her callous disregard of an innocent man's appeal for justice.  Title Minister of Justice is not intended to be used ironically.

Oh.  And her refusal to do her job?

I am all for equity for people of equal ability.  But perhaps Trudeau's biggest sin was installed an incompetent into one of the most important posts in Cabinet to reach a self-imposed artificial limit. Perhaps he then went to extraordinary limits to accommodate an incompetent MOJAG and is now paying the price. If the Cabinet had been unbalanced by more person, it would still have been a step forward.  And it will still have been 2015.

But it seems right now that Trudeau now has the strangest of political metaphors.  He has two people inside his tent and they are both pissing in.Recommend this Post

What is the JWR/JP et al. game plan?

Three leading pundits agree.  This isn't a scandal based on a principled stand in defence of the rule of law.  The SNC-Lavalin "Scandal" is just an attempted palace coup.  To channel Yoda, Trudeau will will tamp this fire out or he will not.  There is no try.  A key rule of the Westminster system is that if the Prime Minister cannot maintain the confidence of a majority of the house, he must step down.

But what are JWR/JP (and possibly disaffected former Liberal strategists) playing at?  They must have a plan.

But what is it?  Pulling a Doug Ford and replacing the leader just before an election?  Hurting the Liberals so they lose?  But only lose enough so that Scheer forms a short lived minority?  Then a snap Liberal leadership contest where St Jody is coronated and takes down the Conservatives?   Huzzah!  Huzzah!

Perhaps one of these fever dreams scenarios have possessed the Princesses of Principle.  If so, they should read more Burns.  Because such plans gang aft agley.  What if they underestimate the damage done to the Liberal chances in October?  What if Andrew Scheer wins a four year term to run ruin the country because of these shenanigans?

JWR might feel she has the right to lead because she is "born noble" (or some other anti-democratic claptrap).  But noblesse oblige.  How does this game justify the risk of a government that would be detrimental to the First Nations as a whole?Recommend this Post

Something rotten in the state of #puglaas

So far the JWR scandal is about "She said, He said".  Except there are two Hes saying she is misconstruing events.  Wait, is there a third person providing evidence that JWR is not being entirely straightforward?

Why, in 4 hours of testimony did JWR not mention this request from the PCO and her decision to spike it?  This refusal to perform her duty to provide legal advice to cabinet and the PCO is evidence that JWR was not listening to reasonable arguments.

If this is the case, then the question becomes "Why?".  Why did she not entertain other points of view?  Why did she refuse the input of someone of the stature of Beverley McLaughlin?  Why did she make her unshakable decision so quickly?

Was it a manifestation of delusions of absolute competence?  Was it a sign of intransigence?  Is still just plain stubborn?  Were there other reasons for her refusal to listen and her, likely, steps to undermine the government?

Got to hand it to Harper, at least the multitudinous scandals surrounding his government were much more transparent.  Duffy/Wright made sense from the get-go.Recommend this Post

Is this the most Liberal of scandals? or Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose

The SNC-Lavalin "scandal" is certainly the top story in the news these days.  Even if it is the contention of the central figure, Jody Wilson-Raybould (the former Attorney-General, probable source of the leak to the Globe and Mail etc), that nothing illegal occurred.

Why all the fuss?  That is still unclear.  But this does all follow a theme manifested in past Liberal governments.  When they are firmly in government and faced with a weak leader of the Conservative Party, the Liberals revert to Natural Governing Party mode.  The underlings get restless and the knives come out for the current leader.

A sample from recent times:

• John Turner tried to undermine Pierre Trudeau and was banished from cabinet
• Jean Chretien was determined to wrest the leadership from Turner
• Paul Martin forced Chretien into an early retirement

So did a JWR faction within the Liberal party see Justin Trudeau as vulnerable and seek to supplant him?  The weakness of the Conservative leader is certainly evident.  Is this all part of a Blue Liberal revolt?  Are one time Liberal strategists with an axe to grind due to their exclusion from the 2015 campaign leading the charge?

I have no idea.  But it makes as much sense as the swirl of nebulous bumpf currently in the news cycle.  But if it ends up costing the Liberals the next election and allowing the crypto-racists of the Conservative party to take over, the people planning any palace coups will have a lot to answer for.

Recommend this Post