Conservatives hate the f**king Liberals...? No WAY!
TheStar.com - Emerson frustrated, ex-aide says
My favourite lines:
Jay Epworth, Emerson's legislative assistant when he was industry minister in the Paul Martin government, said Emerson recently told him he has been shocked by the Harper government's fierce adversarial approach.NICE!
"Behind closed doors, the Conservatives are worse partisans than the Liberals ever were," Emerson said, according to notes Epworth wrote after his conversation with the minister.
"They hate the f---ing Liberals and they're doing everything they can to screw them," he quoted Emerson as saying.
Emerson had been explaining that the partisan nature of politics is "just something he was not able to really wrap his head around," recalled Epworth, who is now the legislative assistant to Opposition Leader Bill Graham.
A.Liberal
posted by A.L. @ 11:59 AM
3 comments
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3 Comments:
PK, Are you suggesting that Jay Epworth just made some stuff up and passed it on to a major newspaper?
Do you understand the difference between what he said and your fabrication?
Try looking up libel in the dictionary; I'm sure the Toronto Star didn't need to.
I'm not disputing that (btw, you had hearsay right the first time); what I'm saying is that I find it unlikely that a named source is lying about this.
Possible, but unlikely.
OK Prairie Kid,
Let's think about this.
Most political assistants are career political-types, or at least someone who wants to stick it out for 5 or so years and then go on to something bigger and better. In a situation like that, your credibility is one of the most important assets you possess.
Therefore, if you are interersted in spreading dubious information that has little truth, you do it as an anonymous source. Epworth is a named source in this article.
Also, bear in mind that political staffers and reporters have a symbiotic relationship of sorts, with information flowing in both directions. If a source (Epworth) decides to feed false information to a reporter, well, he's cut-off that relationship, and likely for good. I doubt he'd be willing to do that this early in the game. Not only that, but his credibility would be shot with many other reporters in many MSM outlets' Ottawa bureaus.
Lastly, I don't think Bob Klager is lying, I think he is saying what he was told to say. All one needs to do is watch press conferenes here in the US with former press secretary Scott McLellan to see numerous examples of disinformation spread by communications staff that said staffer thought was true, but turned out to be wrong.
Clearly, the CPC has more to lose in this situation, so what did you expect them to say?
"Yes, I spoke to Minister Emerson, and he really is disappointed with Mr. Harper and the extreme partisan nature of our party. He's considering quitting!"
Come on. Of course they'll deny it. It's a principle of Canadian democracy called Cabinet Solidarity.
A.L.
A.L.
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