Who's the shady one here?

The Globe and Mail: Liberals woo Tory on tape

I think it depends what side of the aisle you favour....

If you're a Tory you see what you want to see, dirty Liberals buying votes with offers of Cabinet seats, UN appointments, Senate appointments, you name it.

If you're a Liberal you see a self-interested Indo-Canadian moderate Tory looking to hold off an election because he and his wife have become uncomfortable with Harper's leadership.

Me, I think I see something half-way between. I see a self-interested politician (Grewal) looking to cement some important personal/family gains in exchange for scuttling Harper's no-confidence gamble. Yet, it's still not quite that simple, Grewal is a berry-berry sneaky person... he secretly tapes the conversation for two reasons: to back himself up in case the Liberals back away from the "rewards" when it all dies down, and to be able to cover his tracks and keep him in good stead with the Conservatives by making it seem like he was just doing it to expose Liberal corruption.

Smart dude!

I think there are some un-asked questions (by the press):

-What does this say about Mr. Harper's leadership? It seems even some "Western Conservatives" were willing to jump ship.
-What does this say about Mr. Grewal himself and his ethics?
-What were Mr. Grewal's true intentions? I think a solid argument could be made that he would have been equally comfortable with either outcome, staying with Harper or jumping ship.

The facts as I see them are this:

-Mr. Grewal approached the Liberals about voting with the government.
-Mr. Grewal taped the conversations without Tim Murphy and Ujal Dosanjh's knowledge.
-There are valid questions about the veracity of the translations and transcriptions.
-There was no explicit offer made.
-An offer was solicited by Mr. Grewal.
-Mr. Grewal was under investigation.

It gets muddier and muddier....

A.L.