there_is_no_bob
10-01-2008, 12:02 AM
Ooops. (http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080930.welxnmartin01/BNStory/specialComment/columnists)
Makes it hard for Harper to appear moderate
LAWRENCE MARTIN
From Wednesday's Globe and Mail
On the weekend, a top Liberal strategist told me. “We're going down. We need a break.” They got one Tuesday. The Conservatives got caught. In flagrante delicto, you might say.
In the annals of Canadian history, has there ever been anything like this? Cloning at run-on length a speech from a war-driven foreign leader?
The Conservatives have had momentum stallers in this campaign. They need to hope that this isn't a momentum shifter.
On a speech as major as one that stakes out a position on the Iraq war, it will be hard for voters to accept the alibi offered by the Prime Minister's Office – that it was just a mistake by a lowly speechwriter pressed for time.
Party leaders usually have a lot of input into such speeches. They give the writer their ideas. They consult. They find out that other leaders are saying.
The most troubling aspect of the revelation for Conservative Leader Stephen Harper is that it ties him to the coalition of the willing in Iraq. Until now, Mr. Harper has avoided the heat on the war. Because deputy Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff had supported the Iraq invasion, the Grits held their fire. When asked about the war, Mr. Harper would niftily sidestep a direct response.
But now the conspiracy theorists will be out in full force: Mr. Harper, then Opposition leader, was a puppet of G.W. Bush and John Howard, they will charge. Talking points were written in Washington. They were channelled to Mr. Howard and Mr. Harper. Our foreign policy was drafted by right-wing Republicans.
Time will tell whether any of these accusations have merit. Cables from the U.S. embassy in Ottawa and from the Australian capital, if ever released, will reveal the degree of consultation and co-operation.
The Liberals Tuesday were playing their hand too forcefully. For Stéphane Dion to say that Mr. Harper should be expelled from his party was a few apartment buildings over the top.
But there's no escaping the fact that Mr. Harper has suffered significant embarrassment. And at a dreadful time. The Conservative leader is trying to detach himself from Republican economics of the type that just led to the Wall Street crisis. But here he gets wrapped in the Bush administration's foreign-policy blanket. It makes denial of kinship with one of the worst U.S. presidents in history all the more difficult.
In the French-language debate tonight, Mr. Harper's opponents will be going at him. Questions like, “Are you prepared to renounce your support for the Iraq war?” or “Have you plagiarized any economic speeches as well?” The Conservatives will no doubt point to presidential candidate Barack Obama's plagiarism in the Democratic primaries. The Illinois senator lifted a paragraph from a speech by Deval Patrick, the governor of Massachusetts. But it was only a paragraph – and it wasn't about war.
Mr. Harper will no doubt cite Michael Ignatieff's position. But Iggy has since disavowed that stand.
In the first week of the campaign, the Conservatives apologized for their defecating-bird commercial and other slip-ups. In the second week, it was one of their ministers, Gerry Ritz, who embarrassed them with his listeriosis jokes.
This setback is more serious. These Conservatives often try to paint themselves as moderates. When you get caught plagiarizing an Iraq speech from John Howard, even from long ago, it's a hard case to make.
Makes it hard for Harper to appear moderate
LAWRENCE MARTIN
From Wednesday's Globe and Mail
On the weekend, a top Liberal strategist told me. “We're going down. We need a break.” They got one Tuesday. The Conservatives got caught. In flagrante delicto, you might say.
In the annals of Canadian history, has there ever been anything like this? Cloning at run-on length a speech from a war-driven foreign leader?
The Conservatives have had momentum stallers in this campaign. They need to hope that this isn't a momentum shifter.
On a speech as major as one that stakes out a position on the Iraq war, it will be hard for voters to accept the alibi offered by the Prime Minister's Office – that it was just a mistake by a lowly speechwriter pressed for time.
Party leaders usually have a lot of input into such speeches. They give the writer their ideas. They consult. They find out that other leaders are saying.
The most troubling aspect of the revelation for Conservative Leader Stephen Harper is that it ties him to the coalition of the willing in Iraq. Until now, Mr. Harper has avoided the heat on the war. Because deputy Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff had supported the Iraq invasion, the Grits held their fire. When asked about the war, Mr. Harper would niftily sidestep a direct response.
But now the conspiracy theorists will be out in full force: Mr. Harper, then Opposition leader, was a puppet of G.W. Bush and John Howard, they will charge. Talking points were written in Washington. They were channelled to Mr. Howard and Mr. Harper. Our foreign policy was drafted by right-wing Republicans.
Time will tell whether any of these accusations have merit. Cables from the U.S. embassy in Ottawa and from the Australian capital, if ever released, will reveal the degree of consultation and co-operation.
The Liberals Tuesday were playing their hand too forcefully. For Stéphane Dion to say that Mr. Harper should be expelled from his party was a few apartment buildings over the top.
But there's no escaping the fact that Mr. Harper has suffered significant embarrassment. And at a dreadful time. The Conservative leader is trying to detach himself from Republican economics of the type that just led to the Wall Street crisis. But here he gets wrapped in the Bush administration's foreign-policy blanket. It makes denial of kinship with one of the worst U.S. presidents in history all the more difficult.
In the French-language debate tonight, Mr. Harper's opponents will be going at him. Questions like, “Are you prepared to renounce your support for the Iraq war?” or “Have you plagiarized any economic speeches as well?” The Conservatives will no doubt point to presidential candidate Barack Obama's plagiarism in the Democratic primaries. The Illinois senator lifted a paragraph from a speech by Deval Patrick, the governor of Massachusetts. But it was only a paragraph – and it wasn't about war.
Mr. Harper will no doubt cite Michael Ignatieff's position. But Iggy has since disavowed that stand.
In the first week of the campaign, the Conservatives apologized for their defecating-bird commercial and other slip-ups. In the second week, it was one of their ministers, Gerry Ritz, who embarrassed them with his listeriosis jokes.
This setback is more serious. These Conservatives often try to paint themselves as moderates. When you get caught plagiarizing an Iraq speech from John Howard, even from long ago, it's a hard case to make.