I have these points about it running through my mind:
No matter who started it doesn’t really matter. I hope Grewal didn’t because for all the Conservatives’ PR and policy missteps, they have at least remained “clean” thus far—and this would tarnish that short record badly. But if I had to find a good reason to trust Gurmant Grewal more than the Liberals, it would be based on these other power-packed facts:
The Liberals have a record of corruption. They are corrupt.
The Liberals hold all the cards here. They’re in power, they have the goodies to bribe MPs. Grewal looked like an easy mark because the Liberals (thanks to Joe Volpe) have an ethics review currently underway against Grewal in an unrelated matter, which could be used as leverage (both ways, but more so to Liberals’ advantage—again, they hold the power cards); Neither of the Grewal husband/wife MP team have position in the Opposition ranks as ministerial critics, thus they might easily be enticed; and he (Gurmant) comes in twoosies—he has an MP wife.
The Liberals needed him and his wife badly. Their power depended on such things as this unfolding to their advantage. Plus they’d done it prior, and apparently attempted to do it to other Conservatives, notably Inky Mark. They’d done it with Belinda Stronach and with Scott Brison—and possibly others. They have a record of this sort of behavior.
The liberals/media doth protest too much—about the taping aspect. They are spinning this as fast as they can as a dirty deed by the Conservatives (!), by virtue of the fact that Grewal taped the negotiations (which is actually perfectly legal and within his rights). Taping the negotiations is clearly not the main point, it’s merely a smokescreen in an effort to obliterate the real issue which is the possibly criminality of the Liberal Party, and/or possibly Grewal. The liberals/media have also attempted to paint this as an “oh well—all the parties do it, it’s politics as usual…”, which is another typical liberals/media smokescreen. They’re also pulling this little media obfuscalatory stunt vis-a-vis the Liberals’ Sponsorship corruption. This behavior merely causes more suspicion, for me.
Paul Martin’s point-man-in-chief, Tim Murphy, was thoroughly engaged in anything BUT saying “no” to Grewal, despite their claims just last week, whether or not Grewal approached them or the other way around. Health Minister Ujjal Dosanjh was similarly engaged in saying anything BUT “no”, and as far as I can tell, they both have messed-up their careers royally—or at least that should be the outcome. Today Dosanjh accused the Conservatives of “fiddling” with the tapes to make it look bad for Dosanjh. I don’t trust Dosanjh as far as I could throw him, which is not at all. He’s the one who purposely leads a dishonest debate in our country about our own healthcare system.
I’ll concede the Liberal assertion that Grewal approached them, just for a moment to test this question: If he did, why in tarnation would he have taped it all? Why would he tape himself and implicate himself in a criminal act? I mean even if he’d intended to reveal the tapes to the world only if he’d failed to secure a payoff (thus being able—to his way of thinking—to put a “win” in his side of the column no matter what), he must have known that he’d possibly either get caught, or he would at least be put under an enormous cloud of suspicion, his reputation ruined or all but ruined. Call Mr. Grewal whatever names you will, but he’s not completely stupid, he is popular in his riding, and he does have a secure seat in Parliament. I think in all fairness we can give him that much.
If he and his wife did want to leave the Conservative Party because of some sort of philosophical differences, then theoretically they still do. Why don’t they leave now? Nothing in the negotiations said “no” to him, as I said, and they all seemed very amiable. Surely he’d be welcome right now, today. So why not cross the floor now?
I tend to think the Conservatives knew nothing about this until the ball was already rolling, much to the disgrace of Grewal. They are now in the unenviable position of having to side with their man for PR purposes. That’s reason enough to shed him from their ranks—much as they need his vote these days.
As leader of the party I would give nobody the benefit of the doubt in this particular era of political corruption in Canada. This is an excellent opportunity for the Conservatives to show how THEY deal with questionable dealings and questions of corruption. And this is a matter of severe political corruption as I see it—perhaps only slightly more minor than the Belinda Stronach case, but in this case, it’s one in which the Conservatives can still hold themselves up as an good example.
But the Conservatives have this disease in which they let every golden opportunity pass them by! The cure is right there: act appropriately instead of acting like a bunch of dumb liberal-like team players. The political payoff from the electorate would be huge, and the basic moral victory, which is even more important, would be theirs.
Grewal should be fired from the Conservative caucus and be forced to sit as an independent. I’d leave his wife Nina out of it for now since she didn’t seem to be even remotely involved, for some reason (and I question that as well). The only thing that can save Gurmant in my eyes is some other tapes—something yet to be released—proving that he didn’t approach them but rather it was the other way around, and that he was merely doing as he claimed: revealing the Liberals for the crooks that they are.
Here’s the news to now, anyway:
Conservatives privately question Grewal ethics but argue end justifies means
OTTAWA (CP) – Gurmant Grewal’s Conservative colleagues privately castigated him Wednesday but Stephen Harper publicly defended his MP’s controversial tactics in exposing alleged Liberal skulduggery.
Grewal’s secret tapes continued to reverberate around Parliament Hill, with Prime Minister Paul Martin forced to concede he’d been prepared to meet Grewal and his Tory MP wife Nina to seal their defection to Liberal ranks.
Martin maintained for a second straight day, however, that no offers had been made to the Grewals in return for their support on a crucial budget vote last month – notwithstanding hours of recorded haggling between Grewal, Martin’s chief of staff Tim Murphy and Health Minister Ujjal Dosanjh about the payoff.
Dosanjh mounted a secondary offensive claiming the tapes released Tuesday had been doctored.
Amid NDP and Bloc Quebecois demands for Dosanjh’s resignation, the RCMP confirmed it is looking at a Bloc complaint about the affair. As well, Parliament’s ethics watchdog received a formal letter from the NDP requesting he investigate the actions of both the Liberals and Grewal.
Harper, speaking for the first time since the Conservative transcripts were aired, brushed off ethical concerns about Grewal’s surreptitious recordings by suggesting the end justified the means.
“The Liberal party has denied in the past they attempt to buy off members of Parliament. They lied about that,” Harper said following a national caucus meeting.
“What the tapes of Mr. Grewal show is exactly the process they use . . . . Frankly, the only issue now is why they continue to lie about what they’ve obviously done.”
The tapes lay bare promised Libderal [sic] payoffs, but only through third party intermediaries and sometime after the defection – thus ensuring plausible deniability for the prime minister and the defector.
Murphy and Grewal refer on the tapes to the defections of former Tories Scott Brison and Belinda Stronach as models. […]
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