Inside Politics

Choose your own object of outrage!

by Kady O'Malley Posted: November 22, 2009 11:59 AM Last Updated: November 22, 2009 3:01 PM
It's almost, but not quite, a perfect example of reverse cause and effect: Whatever captures one's journalistic attention at any given moment in time almost inevitably leads to a chorus of grumbling over all those other, far more important issues that one should really be covering instead. [Insert story here] is simply a distraction; once again, those out-of-touch Hill reporters are simply giving in to their collective and respective anti-Conservative/Liberal/New Democrat/Green/Undecided bias, and ignoring what actually matters. (Insert optional ".. and this is why the so-called MSM is doomed" here). 

With that in mind, I present ... the inaugural edition of the Sunday Afternoon Commenters' Choice Open Thread. 

First up, we have that instantly infamous now-deleted foray into Facebook political punditizing from Janine Krieber on the state of the Liberal Party, in which she waxed bitter over the treatment meted out to her husband, former leader Stephane Dion, and dismissed Michael Ignatieff as nothing more than a cocktail-circuit celebrity. Oh, she also refers to herself as "La Presidente."  

So, is this yet another potentially fatal blow to the new DonOLO? Should the leader -- or one of his footsoldiers -- respond, or just pretend it never happened? Do her subsequently excised views represent a groundswell of growing internal dissent over the Chosen By Party Executive One? Is this the beginning of Ignatieff's winter of discontent? If so, where -- or, alternately, who -- is the son of York -- or possibly Yorkville -- who will eventually a most glorious summer make? 

Alternately, after rolling your eyes over the Krieberfuffle, you may instead be transfixed by the latest revelations on the Afghan detainee file -- which, so far today, would seem to the Toronto Star's report on an unnamed former senior NATO public affairs officer who says that, back in 2007, the prime minister's office " ... 'scripted and fed' the precise wording NATO officials in Kabul used to repudiate allegations of abuse," which, he was told, was because it was "the titanic issue for Prime Minister Harper." 

Although it would be more damaging if the official in question was willing to go on the record with his claims -- ideally, in front of the Afghanistan committee -- it's hard to see how this won't put even more pressure on the PM to convene a full public inquiry, as it is the first time that his office has been directly, and specifically implicated in such a manner. Or is it just more "howling at the moon," as it was seemingly dismissed by retired general Rick Hillier? 

There you go, Sunday afternoon readers -- feel free to use the comment thread to vent your spleen on either -- or both -- stories, with bonus points if you can somehow manage to link the two. (Not that it's terribly hard to do so, mind you.) 

Tags: blackberry jungle, sunday open thread, thought unstopping experiment