...a suckers born every minute..P T Barnum
Posted on 01/30/2006 12:11:15 PM PST by Clive
It’s never nice to kick someone when they’re down. If my father told me that once, he told me a dozen times. Sorry, Dad. Canada is well rid of soon-to-be-ex-PM Paul Martin.
Paul Martin: Full to overflowing with the notion that the Liberal party was the rightful ruling party of Canada; fuelled by an awful ambition to somehow redeem his father and become PM; blessed with the skin of a rhinoceros; cursed with a mind that maddeningly simplified the most complicated of ideas; possessed of a vocabulary so intemperate and vicious, he lowered the level of political debate and discourse in the nation to new levels.
Even those who held their noses and voted Liberal in this, his last hurrah, are happy to see the back of him. His stepping down as party leader creates a vacuum into which will rush a breath of fresh air.
We will be a long time finding our way back to the sort of civility in politics we once knew. When gentleman players outnumbered the hacks. When repartee didn’t include foul language and raised voices. When more than one sitting member could slice and dice an opponent with wit and words of more than one syllable. When the game was played with dignity and style.
Martin spent the latter part of his career plotting to get the job of his former friend and mentor, Jean Chretien. He surrounded himself with followers bent on getting Chretien out of the PMO and getting Martin in. It was as close to a coup d’etat as one can effect in a democracy.
In the House, as PM, Martin’s technique was smarmy and arrogant. With that sickly smile plastered on his face, he mostly stonewalled questions, then sat back down quickly and smugly to the cheers of his sycophantic caucus. His modus operandi was to give away as little as possible and score a political point or two in the process. He made his own contributions, for sure, to the democratic deficit.
He had the chutzpah to think he could convince us a mild-mannered policy wonk was a threat to life as we know it and make us overlook a scandal that had made us the laughingstock of the world. It’s a testament to the effectiveness of his bare-knuckles campaign style and our gullibility that, with the aid of some below-the-belt punchers in the advertising field, he damn near pulled it off.
In the process, though, he brought into play the worst the political arena has to offer. He brought fearmongering on the hustings to an art form.
His campaign promises this last time were an embarrassment to every thinking voter. We’re used to politicians using our own money to buy our votes, but Martin was on a shopping spree the likes of which would have embarrassed Imelda Marcos.
Perhaps worse than anything, he trivialized Canadians with his transparent, almost childish, brand of politics. It was as if he believed we would fall for anything, ignore any lies.
Nor did he do any favours for his party. Indeed, he, as much as anyone, led it into the wilderness, where, in his absence, it will have an opportunity to reassess the sort of political style Martin brought with him to the PMO. Perhaps it will take the opportunity, too, to jettison his coterie of hangers-on and rebuild an organization worthy of office once again.
In the meantime, since I hear my late father cluck-clucking his tongue in the background, let me take this opportunity to wish the Rt. Hon. Paul Martin a happy retirement.
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(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie. Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")
Canada Ping!
Please FReepmail me to get on or off this Canada ping list.
Sounds like Harry Reid.
But when it's time to stop being nice and start being effective, aim for the balls.
Don't forget the corrupt, arrogant cabal he's taking with him!
:-D
I do think, though, that the author over-reaches a bit when he says:
"He had the chutzpah to think he could convince us a mild-mannered policy wonk was a threat to life as we know it and make us overlook a scandal that had made us the laughingstock of the world."
It is, I would submit, difficult to be the "laughingstock of the world" when most of the world gives little thought to Canadian politics.
The article's description of him could apply to any one of the current DemonRat leadership.
...a suckers born every minute..P T Barnum
Don't worry, though, like most of the idiots that pass for Canadian "journalists" and "intelligentsia", when Harper takes control it will be as if the sun had turned black, babies started crying and wailing, and puppies turned evil since there is no longer a Liberal as PM.
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