The Toronto Sun’s editorial today (”The joke’s on Paul Martin”) is right on the money today, regarding Liberal Prime Minister Paul (“we lead the world”) Martin’s testimony yesterday at his judicial inquiry into his Liberal Party’s corruption. I also like how in their take on it, like mine, they equate the Liberals to a bunch of frat boys.
I’m posting the whole thing—the last paragraph is my favorite.
If you want to know Paul Martin’s real attitude toward the Gomery inquiry—which he set up to get to the bottom of the sponsorship scandal—forget about his respectful demeanour on the witness stand yesterday.
And ask yourself what he was doing leading the cheers and a standing ovation for Jean Chretien inside the Liberal caucus room the day before.
This after Chretien had thumbed his nose at the inquiry and displayed his contempt for the entire process!
Since Chretien’s antics were a direct slam at Martin, why was Martin praising them in caucus—telling MPs his predecessor had done a great job and made Liberals proud?
What does that say about Martin’s oft-declared support for the inquiry? Why did he praise Chretien for publicly ridiculing it?
Was the inquiry just Martin’s way of getting rid of the sponsorship scandal prior to the last election? Now that it’s served its purpose, is he out to sabotage it?
Martin’s bizarre performance inside the Liberal caucus room, widely reported in the media, also raises serious questions about his own leadership, or rather lack of it.
Surely Martin knows Chretien was not just taking direct aim at Justice John Gomery with those golf balls, but at him as well. So how much is Martin prepared to let Chretien publicly stick it to him yet again?
Is there no humiliation Martin is not ready to endure at his old nemesis’ hands (or feet) in his vain attempt to paper over the huge cracks in the Liberal party between those loyal to him and those still loyal to Chretien?
And given all the high-fiving from the Liberal frat boys and girls in caucus over Chretien’s antics, how contrite are they, really, over AdScam and the fact that up to $100 million of our money—money that could have been used to shorten surgery waiting lists or buy MRIs—was wasted?
Do the Liberals who emerged from that caucus meeting chortling that Chretien had just unleashed “a big-town can of whup-ass” through his testimony sound to you like they really want to get to the bottom of AdScam?
Oh, we almost forgot. In his long-awaited testimony yesterday, Martin said that, as finance minister, he didn’t know what was going on in the sponsorship program either—just like Chretien. Apparently they were tweedledumb, and tweedledumber. Which will make the rest of us tweedledumbest if we elect these clowns again.
PTBC was founded by Mr. Johannesen in 2000.
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