Tom Rideout: 'If I'm going to be attacked and my character is going to be assassinated [then] I'm going to have to fight back as best as I can.' (CBC)

A political war of words broke out in St. John's Thursday, as Newfoundland and Labrador's former deputy premier said his reputation is being trashed.

Tom Rideout, who tendered his cabinet resignation a day earlier over a dispute about road funding, said he objected to cabinet colleagues describing him as "strong-arming" and intimidating others in order to obtain political funding.

"I'm trying to stick to the high road here," Rideout, who has also resigned as minister of fisheries and aquaculture, told CBC News Thursday.

"I have nothing personal against the premier and the government and I hold them in high regard ... but if I'm going to be attacked and my character is going to be assassinated, as was attempted publicly [then] I'm going to have to fight back as best as I can."

The surprise resignation of Rideout — a former premier as well as the government house leader —dominated question period again Thursday, with Opposition politicians grilling Premier Danny Williams and Transportation Minister Dianne Whalen about their claims that Rideout had "threatened" Whalen by saying he would quit if he did not get his way.

Williams said again Thursday that Rideout had abused his position in lobbying for additional funds for his district, and made a number of sharp jabs at Rideout.

For instance, when Liberal Leader Yvonne Jones — who was sharply critical of Whalen's handling of the issue — questioned Williams on whether he had "any certainty" in his ministers' ability to "do their jobs," Williams replied bluntly, "I have certainty now that Tom Rideout is gone." Williams sat down amid a notable silence in the legislature.

Rideout lobbied Whalen for an extra $1 million in roadwork for his district of Baie Verte-Springdale, bringing the annual allocation to $3.5 million.

Danny Williams said again Thursday that Rideout abused his position to lobby for extra funds for his district after a budget had already been allocated. (CBC)

Whalen said that her "gut reaction" was to refuse Rideout, but that she caved under pressure because Rideout was acting premier at the time, as Williams was in Houston attending an oil show. She said Rideout had threatened to quit if she did not approve the spending.

But Rideout said the facts of the case don't match the explanation coming from his former cabinet colleagues.

"Nothing could be further from the truth," Rideout said. "At no time did I personally go to Minister Whalen or approach Dianne Whalen to discuss the amount."

Instead, he said, Whalen approached him to "sign off on the allocation for my district" so she could issue a news release on province-wide spending.

Rideout said Whalen raised the issue with him while Williams was in Houston, but that Williams was back in the province for several days before Whalen's office last Thursday issued a news release announcing the $3.5 million in expenditure in Rideout's district.

Transportation Minister Dianne Whalen said she felt 'threatened' by Rideout, who she said vowed to quit if she did not approve his demand. (CBC)

"If her gut wasn't right on offering me another $1 million, and she needed to express it with the premier, then fair game," Rideout said. "But she had all kinds of opportunity to raise it with the premier."

Rideout said he can sometimes become passionate about issues, but insisted that his conversations with Whalen were not even animated. He also said he does not remember giving Whalen an ultimatum, although he said he may have made a comment that he might be "out of here" if the request was turned down.

"I don't know what she told the premier, but obviously whatever she told the premier, he took it, hook, line and sinker," Rideout said.

Rideout said that he could not agree to a request from the premier's office that Rideout withdraw the news release issued last week. Rideout said he would resign before he would do that.

Speaking with reporters Wednesday, Williams said he would have fired Rideout from cabinet if he had not quit. Rideout said the premier's statement was the first indication he had had that Williams felt that way.

"I was under the impression, maybe stupidly so or maybe naively so, I don't know, that the premier held me in high regard," said Rideout.

"Until this particular matter I've had no reason to indicate otherwise."

Williams 'quite pleased' with Rideout's resignation

Williams stressed again Thursday that he could not abide what he claimed Rideout had done.

"The most important thing here is that we have a minister of the Crown that was threatened by another minister of the Crown with a resignation," Williams said.

"That's totally inappropriate, and his resignation stands, and I'm quite pleased with it."

Williams said that while Rideout may have been acting with the best intentions for his district, "He knows, and I know, and everyone in this house know and people in this province know that it's inappropriate to threaten ministers of the Crown."

Jones pointed out that Williams was content to keep Health Minister Ross Wiseman in cabinet even after he told the Cameron inquiry that several months passed before he got around to reading his cabinet briefing book on flawed hormone receptor testing.

Jones also accused Williams of applying a different standard to Rideout than to himself. She cited how Williams personally intervened in 2004 to settle a Victorian Order of Nurses strike in Corner Brook, which prompted Elizabeth Marshall to resign as minister of health.

Williams said the difference boiled down to a "very clear and very, very obvious" threat against a cabinet minister.