I don't think so

I smell bullshit, kids.

So let me see if I get this straight. Tom Rideout wanted $3.5 million for his district, instead of the $2.5 million he got, even though he feels his district really needs 10 times that amount of road work. So $25 million, but he’ll settle for $3.5 million. He browbeats the Transportation Minister for the money, the premier says, “nope, that’s not going to happen” so Rideout quits in a snit.

Cough….bullshit!

No way. I mean it, no fucking way is that the whole story. Yes, Rideout's been an embarassment for the government for awhile. He's been almost useless as a minister and the whole racket with rentals and allowances a few months back was enough to get him fired. But quitting over $1 million in roadwork? After everything that's happened? There's shenanigans afoot here somewhere.

I imagine the stream of stories and rumours about how unhappy the caucus is with Danny will start building up some steam now. It’s been coming out in dribs and drabs for awhile. But really, it’s hard to pick a fight with a man when he has an 80% approval rating. Politics might be a knife fight, but it’s normally a “stab your buddy in the back” kind of thing, as opposed to a “slit your own throat to spite yourself” type of event.

But Danny is taking a hit with the Eastern Health debacle. If the hit sticks, if the public starts to not just turn for the moment, but for the long haul, you’re going to see a lot more grumbling about the way Danny runs things in the future. And, one assumes, a lot more knife sharpening

So I’m sure Rideout is upset that he didn’t get his extra million. But come on. It’s an insult to the intelligence to believe that’s the reason he left. I just wish one of them, just one of them, had the balls to stand up and say the real reason why they left. Loyola Sullivan has been pretty quiet since he left. I bet he has some good horror stories.

I don’t know if this is one more step towards the end for Danny. I’ve had a few private conversations with people who certainly seem to think it is. He always said he was only going to be premier for two terms. He hemmed and hawed after the scope of his victory in the last election and the high approval numbers in polls. But now?

The reporters will get to the bottom of this. The leaks are going to start coming. I wonder if David Cochrane is still cut off, in lieu of this occasion. Yes, Danny answered questions in the scrum, but it would have looked bad if he refused to answer questions from him while the cameras were rolling. Whether or not he answers Dave’s emails and phone calls is something else.

But you get the feeling that me might need some friends in the media in the months to come. What Rideout is saying is bullshit, never doubt it for a second. But I don’t think he’s the last one to bail on the government. Not by a longshot.

Last Five
1. Galician Overture - The Chieftains*
2. Something's wrong - Sloan
3. I melt for you - Bowling For Soup
4. Sunny came home - Shawn Colvin
5. In my time of dying - The Be Good Tanyas

Mercy rule

I spend more time reading American political pundits than Canadian ones these days. Which is a waste of time, really, but I'm kind of addicted. And all of them offer a take on what's going to happen in the Obama vs. McCain election (only the truly committed still thinks Clinton has a chance). How it's going to be close. And will Obama be able to overcome the smears. Is he the next promising Democrat who is going to get crushed in the fall. Is he a Carter, Mondale or Dukakis?

And I laugh. Because it's mostly (there are a few good ones) people talking out of their ass. Or people talking because they get paid to espouse an opinion, never mind that it's non-sensical. Just keep talking, that's the important thing. And sound like you know what you're talking about.

Barring something catastrophic, Obama is going to win this thing by a mile. On top of that, Obama's downticket appeal means the Democrats are going to open up a sizable majority in both the Senate and the House. I don't think we're talking what happened to the Tories in Canada in '93, but we could be looking at what happened to the Tories in England in '97.

I can quote articles from people's whose opinions I respect and who seem to be talking sense. But I think the article that best sums up the Republican Apocalypse that is on the way is the one below. The one with the best headline I've read in ages, which was sent to me by my friend Corey.

Republicans Vote Against Moms; No Word Yet on Puppies, Kittens

In an election year, Republicans in Congress at first voted for a motion "Celebrating the role of mothers in the United States and supporting the goals and ideals of Mother's Day" and then, after careful thought, reconsidered the idea. That's when 177 Republicans voted against this motion. Against moms. And they flipped-flopped on it. They were for moms, before they were against moms.

Sure I could point to the cluster-fuck that is the Iraq War. A foreign policy that looks like it was designed by Kindergarten bullies and an economic policy that appears to have been designed by someone who flunked Grade 5 math. But you will always get people who will argue the pros of each of these policies in such a way that, if you're not careful, you will almost believe the bullshit.

But the Republicans just voted against mothers right before Mother's Day. If you want a clearer sign of a group of people that need to go away now, who have lost touch with reality, I can't give it to you. The 177 Republicans that voted against moms should lose the next election just for being that fucking stupid. Yes, politicians can be idiots, but that is stupidity above and beyond, my friends. That's historic stupidity. Future historians will point to that vote and go, "That's quite possibly the stupidest group of people in the history of our country."

And this is what Obama, who even his adversaries will admit is as gifted a politician as they've seen in a generation or more, is going up against this fall. Someone who just defeated the combined might and cunning of the Clintons is going up against people who don't think a motion celebrating moms is a good idea.

If there isn't a mercy rule in politics, then they might want to consider legislating one after the November elections. It's going to be exactly that ugly.

Last Five
1. Not falling apart - Maroon 5
2. Silver road - Sarah Harmer*
3. Momsong (really!) - The Be Good Tanyas
4. Sweet love - Anita Baker
5. How do you keep love alive? - Ryan Adams

Blood sports

When it comes to blood sports, few things beat American presidential politics during primary season. This isn’t a startling or revolutionary observation. I’m just saying that for all that people get worked up about provincial or federal politics in Canada, its single A baseball compared to what’s happening in the United States right now.

This is also a special round of blood sport. There is no president running for reelection. There is no vice-president striding into the field. I’m trying to think of the last time something like this has happened. Maybe 1968? So 40 years since there was this type of free-for-all in US presidential politics.

I’ve been chatting about this with a friend of mine in Nebraska since 2004. She was screaming Obama’s name at me ever since he got elected to the Senate. Hell, she might have been doing it before then. I dismissed him running for the presidency and was wrong about that. I dismissed his chances of winning the nomination and yet…

I thought Hillary Clinton had this locked. Even in recent weeks when there was sign of her campaign faltering, I thought it was just the usual pre-election jitters. This happens right before any election (or in this case, series of elections) when the news coverage suddenly starts to reflect a much closer race and the poll numbers tighten.

But yeah, it really seems to be starting to happen. It’s primary season, so God only knows. But the Democrats really do appear to be leaning towards picking Obama. Which I would have no real problem with. Yes, I like the idea of a woman being president, but Hilary leaves me cold. Which I suspect is not an uncommon complaint.

With the Republicans, I have no idea. It’s a mostly unimpressive field, with one candidate after another surging to the front of the pack, until the public then decides to take a closer look at them and throws them back with disgust. It’s Huckabee’s turn right now. Now part of me would love for the Republicans to nominate Huckabee, because I think once America at large gets a good, solid look at him they will recoil with horror making whoever the Democrats nominate that much easier to win. And for the most part, I suspect I would side with Democrats if I lived in the U.S. But it’s the U.S., so it’s entirely possible they could elect Huckabee, which would be terrifying.

It’s not that I oppose some of the hardcore Republican beliefs of smaller government and less taxes. It’s just that’s not what the Republicans are right now. They’re a political party controlled mostly by zealots and religious crusaders. There are people trying to fix that, but they’re out manned and out gunned, but good on them for trying. It’s kind of hard for me to get interested in that kind of party.

Who do I think is going to win? Well, I think I might have to change my pick from Clinton to Obama for the Democrats. If he takes Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina, which looks entirely possible right now, then he’s just going to ride that momentum right to the finish. What could be interesting is who he picks as his VP. I imagine there would be pressure to pick Hilary, but really, do you want Lady MacBeth as your vice president?

I have no earthly idea who the Republicans will pick. It’s a mystery at this point. I’m kind of thinking Mitt Romney, just because he’s slick and not too offensive, as long as you don’t find slick and a willingness to sell out what you believe in to get elected as offensive. At least it is a more stealthy offensiveness than Huckabee’s or Gulliani. The latter’s presidential run always perplexed me. Did people manage to forget that people in New York were getting ready to have parties for Gulliani's departure once his term as mayor was up? He was reviled on September 10, 2001. And the only people who have more shamelessly used September 11 as a political tool are the current president and vice-president of the US.

So yeah, this is all vastly entertaining stuff. I’m watching it with interest and I’ll be curious to hear what people think when I’m down in the States. It’s one thing to observe it from far away, another thing to hear people talk about it where the action is actually happening.

By the way, for those interested in this sort of thing, the three sites I read are the Daily Kos, Rolling Stone and Andrew Sullivan. The first two are completely pro-Democrat sites. Rolling Stone in particular has savaged just about every candidate except Obama, so it’s no problem to see where their loyalties lie. And I like Sullivan because he’s a fairly common sense Republican. There are plenty of links to follow at all the sites, which I also like.

Anyway, we shall see how it goes. Whoever is elected next can’t possible be worse than Bush. Oh right, I forgot about Huckabee…

Last Five
Victrola - Sean Panting

New lows

Honest to God, is the Liberal party run by idiots?

I'm not even referring to the federal Liberals, to which a case can easily be made. But if you need more proof that the people running the Liberal Party of Newfoundland and Labrador are morons, then this story ought to do the trick.

Aside from not vetting the guy to make sure he didn't have a shady past, they manage to provoke him into quitting days before the byelection so they have no candidate in the district. Granted, they probably had no chance of winning the seat. Given the massive discrepancy in the size of the governing party vs. the opposition parties, odds are the people of Grand Falls-Windsor-Buchans were going to vote Conservative anyway.

But still. Come on. I mean, I know it was hard work to look more inept and idiotic than the party did in the recent provincial election, but there's no need to actively go out and try.

And yet, there you go. They managed just that.

I think the size of the opposition parties will ultimately be a bad thing for Newfoundland and Labrador. Governments that have that much power tend to abuse it, no matter how good their intentions. But really, given how bad the Liberals are right now, I can't blame anyone for not wanting to waste their vote on them.

Say what you want about Danny Williams, at least he's competent. I don't think the current batch of Liberals could find the word in a dictionary.

Marshall plan

If you're looking for a definition of contempt, then take a look at the provincial cabinet announced by Danny Williams. Oh, it's not the extra people suddenly, magically needed to run the province. The people of Newfoundland and Labrador managed to get by with fewer cabinet ministers for many years, but now when we have the smallest population in decades it takes a near record high number of ministers to run the place.

On second thought, that is a pretty good definition of contempt. But no, I was going for another one.

How the hell is Elizabeth Marshall still not in cabinet?

If they did IQ testing on the Tory caucus (and boy, wouldn't that be a fun Access to Information request to make) I have no doubt Marshall would be among the highest in this bunch. I know there was some bashing of her during the election, but hell, it's an election that's what you do during elections. She's the kind of candidate you pray you get when you run a political party - an intelligent, competent, ethical, thoughtful person. As an added bonus she's a woman.

She was good enough to be a Health Minister right out of the gates. Nearly four years later, she's still in the wilderness after standing up to Williams when, oh yeah, she was right to do so.

I know Williams can hold a grudge like no one's business. But honestly, he's really going to keep someone that talented wasting in the backbenches for at least another year or more until there is another shuffle? That's a little beyond vendetta. That rolls right into contempt.

Dave Denine, who has been described by some in Mount Pearl as "a nice enough fella, but has done shit all the past four years" gets to be a minister ahead of Marshall. Ross Wiseman, who is so devoid of personality that my former boss tries not to quote him in her paper for fear that it might put people to sleep and that would be bad for business. He gets to continue as Health Minister.

And so on and so forth. I suspect I could through most of the cabinet and ask how they got in ahead of Marshall. By any standard other than skills at kissing ass, she's more qualified than most of them.

There's something strange going on there. Maybe Marshall doesn't want back in cabinet, although I find that hard to believe. I really have to believe that Williams has that much contempt for her. It would be almost impressive if not quite so sad.

Hard campaign

All elections can be rough going. And certainly the Newfoundland Liberal party were under no illusions about how hard this one was going to be. They were facing a premier with approval ratings at 70 per cent and higher. There was talk about the PCs sweeping the province. And just to add to their woes, Gerry Reid is really nobody's idea of premier material. I'm sure he's a nice enough guy, but remember, he didn't want to be leader of the party in the first place. When Roger Grimes stepped down, he didn't step forward. A disaster by the name of Jim Bennett did, who the Liberals promptly ousted when he gave the appearance of being too crazy to run the party.

So I'm just saying, it was rough going into election. The Liberals knew it was going to be a rough election. But I don't think the party was anticipating death and hospitalizations.

I didn't say anything when Gerry Tobin died out of respect to his family. But hell, I can't have been the only one to have thought, "Damn, you know it's a rough election when..." Then late on Friday Clayton Hobbs withdrew from the race in Bonavista South for health reasons, meaning Roger Fitzgerald was declared the winner. To be honest, this was just saving time as Hobbs had no chance of winning. Bonavista South was likely going to be the first seat declared for the Tories on Election Night.

But Jesus, now Simon Lono goes down with a blood clot? How brutal is it our there?

I've had Simon in my apartment for supper a couple of times when he was in Iqaluit. He's a hell of a nice guy and I was rooting for him in St. John's North. Now I'm just hoping the campaign doesn't kill him. It sounds like he's going to be fine, but both myself and Cathy are wishing him a speedy recovery. And hey, maybe even a surprise victory in St. John's North as a get better soon gift.

Prediction

I had a couple of different things I was going to write about this evening. I had a couple of reviews of news shows (Pushing Daisies and Private Practice) or some sanity saving tips for surviving your first winter in the north. However, my brain is now a softer grade of mush. I sat down this evening to write another section of the book (now at 75,000 words) and entered some kind of strange zone. I came out of it about 90 minutes later and was just zonked.

But I did manage to write several thousand words during that stretch. Which is good. But I'm pretty much done writing for the evening.

So in lieu of snappy reviews or useful advice I give you a meaningless prediction. The Newfoundland election is only a few days a way. Who is going to win is a foregone conclusion. All that matters now is the seat count.

So this is my prediction: 40 PCs, 5 Liberals, 2 NDP. The NDP will take Signal Hill-Quidi Vidi and Lab West. The Liberals will take the other three seats in Labrador and two somewhere on the island. No idea which ones, but they might be able to scrounge up two. I wonder which would be crueler for Gerry Reid? Winning his seat or losing it?

Anyway, I guess we will see. Feel free to make your prediction in the comments section.

Small battles

There was some conversation in my previous post about what seats, if any, the Liberals will hold. A couple were mentioned and by all means, if you have your picks, feel free to mention them.

However, here’s my take on why even traditional, rock solid Liberal seats are in play this time. WJM mentioned Cartwright. I would have said Bellevue. There may well be a few others. But I think all of those are at risk. And it’s not just because Williams is insanely popular province-wide. Provincial popularity doesn’t translate directly into provincial districts. If the local MHA is a good constituency person, is personally well liked in the area and the people there are happy at how quickly he or she returns their calls and gets things done for them, then that cuts down some of the premier’s personal popularity.

This election is going to be interesting in that it’s going to not so much be a province-wide campaign, but several local ones. Put it this way, it’s not war. The war is won. This is all about little local skirmishes. The Tories don’t need to worry about 75 per cent of the seats in the province. They are a lock. I would be surprised if Williams spends more than three days in St. John’s. The Tories will win them all (sorry Simon. I hope I’m wrong) with the possible exception of Lorraine Michaels.

Instead the Tories are going to be concentrating their firepower on the remaining Liberal seats in rural Newfoundland. Williams is going to visit Gerry Reid’s district more than he’s going to visit St. John’s. Because in case you haven’t noticed, our premier holds a grudge. Williams could win 47 seats and lose Reid’s riding and he would consider it a disappointing election. He wants to beat Reid.

Every Liberal incumbent still standing is going to be under tremendous pressure. Visit from the premier and cabinet. Intensive advertising campaigns in the local papers. The whole nine yards. The Liberals will fairly quickly have to give up the notion of a provincial campaign or even taking seats from the Tories and just keep heaping sandbags to hold off the flood in the districts they hold. We’re talking guerilla warfare in about six ridings. For the rest of the province, I suspect this is going to be a very quiet, fairly dull election.

Elections are normally windfalls for media with advertising. But I’ll be curious to see how much money is spent and where. For example, I think the Telegram is going to do poorly with advertising dollars. We’ll see, but I think the Tories, and especially the Liberals, are going to want to very specifically target where the money goes. Unless things have changed in recent years, very few people outside the Northeast Avalon read the Telegram. They read the local community papers for their news. Papers with major battles happening in them are going to make good money.

I think this election, when it’s all said and done, is going to remind me of the last few American election. Where most of the country is ignored because it’s a foregone conclusion which candidate is going to win there. The real battles are in a half dozen or so “swing states.” Whichever way they swing determines who wins the election. Except this time the half dozen or so “swing” districts are all Liberal, and which way they swing decides if Williams has to face an opposition on the other side of the house, or just more friendly faces he couldn’t squeeze in on his side.

Waiting for the hammer

Cathy asked me this evening what was going on since I hadn't blogged since Wednesday. I wasn't having a problem, more like there's only so much creativity I can tap into during the run of a day. Since Wednesday I've probably written about 8,000 to 10,000 words of my book. Which is quite a nice run, by my standards. I rather doubt that will continue, but I was on a roll. And you don't mess with creative streaks (I just finished watching Bull Durham, so I have the speech about streaks rattling around inside my head right now). When you get a burst where the words are flowing and you know exactly what each character is going to and say, you write until your fingers bleed.

Because you never know....it could end at any moment and the next thing you know you're doing something like the little dude to the right of the page.

I suppose with the election call coming up in Newfoundland I should be getting excited. But honestly, I'm trying to think of a less interesting, more anti-climatic election in recent Newfoundland history. And that's saying something. For all the bullshit you read about how interesting and complex Newfoundland politics can be, most elections are deadly predictable. The last one I can think of that was truly, majestically weird was in '89. Other than that, if you didn't know who was going to win the day the election was called, then you weren't paying attention. The only thing up in the air was how many seats the party in question was going to win.

Election '07 is going to be, if possible, even more boring. When elections are called, reporters normally start pools to guess who is going to win each seat. The person who gets the most seats right, wins. I wonder if there will be any pools this year? I almost doubt it.

Having seen the moves that Williams has pulled in the last couple of weeks - the Hebron deal, the energy plan, buying into White Rose and even releasing the MHA spending report which is managing to make the Liberals look worse than the Tories - I've come to a conclusion. I told it to a friend of mine back home last week and he agreed.

It's not that Williams is trying to win. It's a given pretty much that he will. It's not that he's trying to win every seat. I would have said that was impossible as recently as six months ago. Now, I'm not so sure.

No, I honestly think he's trying to eliminate the concept of opposition parties in Newfoundland and Labrador for the next decade. At least. It's quite possible he could destroy both parties (believe it or not, the Liberals are far more vulnerable. The NDP have a better chance of holding Signal Hill-Quidi Vidi than the Liberals do in holding any of their seats). Not only would that leave him unopposed in '07, it will make it almost impossible for those parties to rally any serious challenge to the Tories in '11, the next provincial election. They simply won't have the money, resources or profile that a party gets just from sitting in opposition.

It's funny. Nunavut doesn't have opposition parties either. Instead, it works using a consensus government. All the MLAs work together to make decisions. Individuals might oppose a decision, but there are no political parties that oppose the premier or the cabinet. So Newfoundland may well be just like Nunavut on October 10. Except the consensus will come from one man.

Hope you're all ready for the hammer to fall, folks.

Asking the questions

In lieu of recent comments from certain media about the nature of bloggers critical of Danny Williams (ie. They all must be Liberals and work for communications firms therefore are biased and wrong) I’ve been waiting for someone to try that bullshit on me.

They haven’t, and there are any number of reasons for that. I don’t live in the province anymore. Nor is this a straight political blog. I would likely go mad if I only wrote about politics all the time.

But the most important thing is that I am no Liberal flunky. I have a long history of criticizing Liberal governments in Newfoundland. I raked poor Roger Grimes over the coals. I thought Brian Tobin was a slick tool. I danced the Dance of Malicious Glee when Beaton Tulk had his fall from grace.

Hell, I cut my journalistic teeth criticizing Clyde Wells. Which I highly recommend. Nothing quite sharpens you up so much as trying to question someone who is clearly not only more intelligent than you are, not only more intelligent than 98% of the population he is leading, but who also clearly knows he is.

This is the thing that drives me nuts in Newfoundland right now. And it’s not just the Hebron MOU (and MOUs are like pixie dust. You can scatter them everywhere and people think they’re cute and meaningful. But they can blow away awfully fast if the wind changes), but anything to do with Williams government. This howling reaction of outrage whenever you ask basic questions to the premier.

Are Ed and Simon, to give but two examples, diehard Liberals? Of course. To say otherwise is foolish. But to dismiss the points they make because they have a Liberal background is even more foolish. They are smart men with enough communications and policy wonk experience on them to choke a horse. They’re going to notice things that the average person, and the average journalist, might miss. To ignore what they have to say is silly. To question their desire to see Newfoundland thrive is idiotic. Their desire to see Newfoundland prosper is greater than their desire to see a Liberal government in power. Never doubt that.

People who dismiss Ed and Simon are missing a very basic, very simple point. It is your duty as a citizen of Newfoundland and Labrador to question everything any government tells you. Not just the Williams government. It was our duty with Tobin and not nearly enough did it and the result was him scurrying away before people caught onto the mess he made. We treated the word of Smallwood as Holy Script and look where that got us. It’s also our duty with any future premiers.

There’s nothing wrong with asking hard questions and demanding answers. If your leader can answer a question to your satisfaction, great. But there are always other questions and you should never stop asking them.

That why I like Ed and Simon. They never stop asking questions. They never stop doubting. And when the answers aren’t forthcoming, they dig and try to find them. This is good because amidst all the glee over the Hebron MOU, there are a lot of questions to be answered. And hell, I might even be willing to give Williams the benefit of the doubt on confidentiality agreements and needing to get things locked up first so we can’t get into specific details if he had done this a year ago. But he didn’t. He made this announcement mere weeks before an election for which this is clearly going to be a main plank in his campaign.

Look, I don’t care what your political loyalties are. There is simply no way any leader can stand up and announce they have a deal that will fundamentally alter the province for a generation or more and give only the most vague details. And when people ask for more information go, “Nope, sorry I can’t tell you until well after you reelect me. But trust me, it’s great.”

Nope. No way. No chance in hell. There’s no human way you can let a politician get away with that. I don’t care if the guy has the recombinant genetic structure of Gandhi, Lincoln and Nelson Mandela. There is no way you can let him get away with that. It’s like putting a sign around your neck that says “I am a sucker. Abuse me.”

To reiterate a few points for those slow on the uptake: I sincerely hope the deal is as good as Williams is singing. And of the three party leaders in the province right now, Williams is by a large margin the most qualified to run the place. But that doesn’t mean people shouldn’t be asking lots of questions and getting of answers in return.

And if Williams doesn’t answer them, then just keep asking again and again and again. If he doesn’t answer them, then you might ask why that is and keep it in mind when going to the polls. Because this is too important to not have answers. If you wait until after the election and then discover you don’t like the answers, well, too bad, eh? And you get what you deserve.

The next premier?

There was a little blurb in last Saturday Globe and Mail talking about the possibility of Chief of Defense Staff, Gen. Rick Hiller succeeding Danny Williams as leader of the Conservative party in Newfoundland and then becoming, de facto, the next premier of Newfoundland and Labrador. Although I found it later, Scott Feschuk of Macleans also mentions Hillier's possible future in politics.

I'm sure this rumor has been kicking around in Newfoundland for quite some time, especially given the very public profile Hillier has nationally these days. Rick Mercer made the quip on his show that Hillier was the most powerful Newfoundlander alive, and like many things Mercer says, it's funny and not exactly wrong.

I can't imagine Hillier wanting to go quietly into retirement once his job with the Canadian armed forces is over. I'm sure Ed probably knows how much longer he has in his current position, which I think has a mandatory length of time, but it can't be more than another couple of years since he's already been at the job more than two years.

Then what? Well, he'll probably take some time off, maybe write a book and then, yeah, I could see him entering politics. The timing would work pretty well for him, I should think. And yeah, if he wanted Danny's job, I don't think too many people are going to be able to beat him.

I have my reservations. Granted, he seems like a nice enough guy. He's had one hell of a tough job, trying to fix the mess the Canadian armed forces have been for the past decade or so. And despite the controversy about whether or not Canada should be in Afghanistan, I haven't heard many people say that Canadian forces are doing a bad job over there. In fact, most of what I've read said they've performed with distinction.

A lot of that has to do with the men and women on the ground, of course. But let's not forget, if things were going horrifically then the first people on the media firing squad would be the generals running the show. People might complain about Hillier's public profile and a few of his mistakes, but by all accounts, people seem to like and respect him and the job he's doing. People can also correct me on this, but when people have publicly called the armed forces on some flaw, they've been generally pretty quick to try and fix the problem. Well, quick for the military.

And really, you have to ask, if the man is making a go at organizing an army to help rebuild Afghanistan, how hard could it be to try to fix Newfoundland?

The thing of it is, Hillier is still a little too high profile, still a little too much willing to speak out in public and criticize when he doesn't get his way. And, well, the military is one thing, politics is quite another. I appreciate that in his position, he needs some political skills. But being premier of Newfoundland and Labrador, especially once Williams is done, isn't like being thrown in the deep end. It's being thrown off the edge of the Grand Banks.

I'd like to see someone a touch quieter and more willing to just go and do the work and not pick fights all the time. I've said already that from what I've seen of her, I think Elizabeth Marshall would make an excellent premier, but we shall see how things shape up.

I guess one good thing, though. If Hillier expresses an interest and a groundswell builds up around him as potentially the next premier, it might inspire the knives to come out for Danny. You get the feeling there is more than one frustrated Conservative out there right now with Williams. But few in the caucus have the clout to stand up to him, let alone bump him off. But someone like Hillier, who is well beyond Williams' ability to control or attack, could certainly do the job.

Wouldn't that make an interesting bit of political theatre...

Where's Plan B?

There's a quip you often hear at the curling club - Plan B. When you're dealing recreational league curlers you can call all the wise strategy shots you want, odds are the players can't make them. However, more often than you might think, the person making the shot does something weird, odd and just plain fluky and the shot works out. You wanted an opponent's stone removed. You thought a straight take-out would do the trick; your second believes it would be more interesting to remove that stone via a double angle raise take-out. But hey, it got the job done. Plan B.

Getting down to Plan C or D is also not unheard of.

So when I read this quote from Premier Williams, I got curious:

"My solution is to get rid of Harper."

Which is lovely. Great Plan A. However, this is politics and yes, there are some players of local skills in Newfoundland, but you just know that Williams can call that shot all he wants, odds are it's not going to happen.

What am I talking about? Well, last time I checked the prime minister was flirting in majority government territory in opinion polls. Some have him around 39 per cent, which is really, really close to getting a majority. And regardless, it certainly seems to indicate that his government is in no danger of not being in charge should another election be held any time soon. Barring some epic collapse or scandal, Harper is still going to be prime minister at the end of this year, even if it's another minority government.

Yes, things might change. It's the reason why we hold elections. But it's not looking likely. And if Premier Williams believes he can sway the rest of Canada to his opinion and oust the prime minister, well, that's showing a level of delusion I quite frankly find a touch alarming. Because I can call Harper many things - ego-centric, a touch cruel, more than a bit cold. But the one thing I wouldn't call him his stupid. I think he's got Williams figured out pretty well. He watched what he did to Martin and learned from it. It isn't happening to him.

So, Plan B. The Hail Mary shot. I'm assuming there's a Plan B for when Harper is still prime minister. You know, the plan where the province could perhaps move forward on other very important files such as Churchill Falls, the fishery, and financial issues. Where everything works out despite the fact that Harper is still prime minister and Williams is still premier and these things still need to be taken care of despite the giant egos involved.

No? No Plan B? Nothing at all? No angles or bit of flukery possible so we don't end up completely screwed?

Well, damn...

On an unrelated note, the weekly weigh-in came in at 232 pounds, up one from last week. And with the two of us off to Ottawa next week, cracking that magic 230 pound barrier is apparently still a couple of weeks away.

So who should lead?

So I've been joining in the merry little attack wagon on Danny Williams in the last few days. There's nothing wrong with that, by the way. I have a long history of criticizing governments. How else are you supposed to let them know what they're doing wrong? And I believe that Williams is currently badly off the rails as Newfoundland's premier.

So who should be the premier of Newfoundland and Labrador after the October election?

Danny Williams, obviously.

Yeah, I know. Look, let's face facts. Neither of the current opposition leaders - Gerry Reid and Lorraine Michael - are ready to step into the big chair. Reid didn't even really want to be party leader and still acts like he would genuinely prefer to be doing just about anything else right now. And there's no way that anyone, even the most hardcore, fanatic New Democrat, can believe that Michael is ready to be premier and that the NDP could handle governing. Even in the unlikely possibility that the entire voting populace of the province spontaneously got stoned and lost their minds on election day.

So Williams is it. I'm a realist, and realistically of the three party leaders, he's the best one to be premier.

What I want from Williams is to shape the fuck up. Seriously. His mom needs to shake him, his wife slap him or someone in his cabinet grow a pair of balls and say something to him. Or a TV set could drop on his head. Something. Anything.

I have no doubt that he's a smart man. I have no doubt that he has fine political skills. I have no doubt he could make an excellent premier and do real wonders in turning around the province. I thought that when he first got elected back in 2003. But he's not doing it now and it's frustrating as hell. I don't know if it was his success with the Atlantic Accord, that he apparently has no one who he respects that contradicts him, personal problems (the rumour is buzzing enough that I'm hearing it up here, so....) or whatever. But the Williams Express needs to get on the rails and soon.

Ideally what would happen in the election later this year is that the Conservatives lose seats and the populace make it known they want Williams to chart a new direction public policy wise and focus less on picking fights with Ottawa and actually working with the federal government to get things done. That most of the current Liberals don't run and that the party get some people with, you know, actual pulses in the House of Assembly. People who want to be there. And that the NDP get there couple of seats so they can raise the occasional useful point.

That's what I want. Dare to dream, I guess...

Who wants to be a traitor?

When I did my little rant about The Express closing, a friend in St. John's e-mailed me and said not to worry about burning bridges with it, that Craig Westcott had burned more bridges than he had ever walked across and was still getting work.

My response was that Westcott is twice the journalist that I am and has more lives than a shelter full of cats. That was before I read his speech at NOIA today, reprinted on Geoff Meeker's blog.

I'll repeat here what I said there – Jesus, Mary and Joseph. That man really wouldn't take shit from the devil himself.

I sat about 10 feet behind him during a Senate committee meeting on media concentration where he lambasted Transcontinental for their treatment of The Express and his concerns about what owning so many papers in Newfoundland would mean. Craig was the only journalist in the province to appear before the committee and one of the few, if not perhaps the only one, in the country to criticize their employer.

That takes balls.

What he did today, which was basically to call the premier of the province a power mad dictator one generation removed from Joey Smallwood and who should be put down like a rabid political dog was...something else. Balls doesn't really quite cover what it took to stand up and make that speech. It's something else entirely and something rarely seen in the province. The guts to criticize those in power, even though it might hurt your livelihood, the intelligence to make a coherent argument and the creativity to put it into words that everyone can understand, appreciate and be captivated by.

Hell, I tried to do put something together yesterday attacking Williams and it seems incoherent and hackneyed in comparison. And with due respect to Ed and Liam, also critics of the premier, who have tons of information at their fingertips but sometimes get bogged down, it can take a writer of Westcott's skill to get the point across as gracefully as he did today.

Anyway, I tip my hat to my former colleague and good friend. That was a hell of a piece of writing.

Two other interesting asides, watching the comments come in. First, that government suppporters are clearly going to attack Craig for the section on the government not advertising in his paper. First of all, the paper isn't failing nor is Westcott saying it is. He is saying that it's curious that of all the media in the province, the one the government is not advertising with is the one with the editor most critical of the premier. Peckford did it back in the days of the Sunday Express...it was a shitty tactic then that was heavily criticized and it's still shitty now. It's a typical tactic, ignore the meat of the speech of what he's saying and twist and attack a small point.

Secondly, I think there could be real money to be made on a series of t-shirts that says Danny Williams hates you. "Danny Williams thinks I suck." "Danny Williams stalks my blog", "A traitor to Dannyland", "The Newfoundland government thinks I'm a traitor"...stuff along those lines. I imagine we can come up with a few more catchy slogans. We just need some nice graphic images to go along with them. Anyone want to take it from here?

Smacking Danny around

1. Well, apparently Harper is going to take any crap from Danny. I mean, yes, spending tens of thousands of dollars on those ridiculous ads certainly got Danny some attention, just like it did a few years ago. However, unlike the last time he did this:

A. The current prime minister apparently has a spine.
B. The Canadian public has heard this shtick before.
C. Nobody seems all that impressed by this racket.
D. The premier apparently has no game plan on what he wants by doing all of this.

I mean, the budget is passed, the prime minister could give a rat's ass what Williams thinks and has pretty much made it clear that the whole province could vote Liberal in the next election and he wouldn't particularly care, since he'll make up those seats by sucking up to Quebec.

So remind me what the genius strategy here is again? To get reelected by picking a fight to Ottawa? Well, that's more than passing retarded as Williams is going to win the next election. He was going to win the election back in 2003 when they beat up the Liberals.

So again, why is he doing this? I'm honestly not sure if he knows at this point. It just seems silly. And I suspect it's doing far more harm than good at this point.

2. I haven't been following the Hart murder case as closely as most people in Newfoundland have been. The verdict of guilty doesn't strike me as that surprising. And when your defence attorney's closing argument can basically be summed up as, "find my client not guilty because he's a liar." then you know you're in a world of trouble.

But here's the part I found interesting, the howling for his blood on the Globe and Mail's message board. A nice few people wanted to see him executed. I never thought of Canadians as a particularly blood-thirsty people, but reading some of those comments certainly gave me pause.

This is one of these areas where myself and Cathy actually disagree. She has no problem with the death penalty. I, on the other hand, do. And I certainly understand her reasons, that some crimes are so vicious and cruel that the people who commit them deserve to die. Hart may well be such a person (there's actually a case in Georgia right now so reprehensible that it was almost enough to change my mind. Go here if you want to learn more, but it's not for the weak of heart).

But my thing is that there has always been enough examples, just in Newfoundland alone, of the wrong person being sent to jail. And yes, there is a certain grim satisfaction of seeing someone die for their monstrous crime, but I can't imagine how it would feel to execute someone only to discover that you were wrong afterwards.

Hart will spend the rest of his life in jail. It will not be a pleasant life. That's enough for me.

3. Regular blog readers will be happy that there should be nor more curling posts until October or so. I played my final game of the season this evening, a blow-out loss in the A final. Disappointing, really. Still, it was a fun season and I had a good time.

4. This week's weigh-in sees me at 231 pounds, down one pound. Slow and steady, folks...

Oh Danny, WTF?

Pop quiz, people. In this picture from last week's Independent (Photo Credit Paul Daly), Premier Danny Williams…



1. Is having some fun with his Irish heritage.
2. Already had a bit too much fun regarding his Irish heritage, if you know what I mean.
3. Has clearly lost his mind.

You know there was a point when I would have went with A, but now I think that it might be C. It happens, of course. I can't speak for pan-Canadian politicians, but Newfoundland politics clearly drives those involved with it mad after awhile. The higher you go in power, the quicker you're likely to go mad.

I can say many things about Clyde Wells, but I always gave him credit for getting out when he did. Seven years and done. About the smartest thing he ever did. He could have stuck around. Possibly could have even won a third term. But he saw the writing on the wall, saw that he was possible already beginning to lose it and got out before the drooling became noticeable.

Smallwood was, of course, barking mad by the time the late 60s came around. Moores probably wasn't far off it either by the time he got out. Peckford was as mad a hatter when he left, riding his mutant, Sprung-grown cucumber off into the sunset.

Hell, Tobin was certifiable before he ever took the job. Going to Ottawa will make the best of them loonies. Spending time in cabinet for three years and having unsubtle aspirations on becoming prime minister and figuring a stint as Newfoundland's premier is just the ticket to make you more palatable, is pretty clearly a sign that you're mental.

Tulk wasn't there long enough to go mad, although arguments could be made regarding his sanity. And Grimes wasn't so much insane as just fucked. Grimes was fucked from the instant he won the leadership by 14 votes under dubious circumstances. If he had been reelected, maybe he would have been fucking nuts, but as it stands, he was just fucked.

Which brings us to Williams. I'm not saying he had a shot at beating the curse, but there were promising signs. He landed the Atlantic Accord, seemed reasonably bright and was pretty much promising two elections and then he was done. All good signs.

Sadly, it seems Danny's mental dissolution is progressing ahead of schedule for the average Newfoundland premier. I can't really say why. Perhaps a large, heavy binder filled with opinion polls fell on his head. But he's showing all the signs. Exhibit #1, that picture. Did he learn nothing from Leo Puddister, who did a similar cover several years ago to much mocking.

The next is all this proud Newfoundlander crap. Even by previous Newfoundland premier standards, which are quite high in abusing patriotism, Danny is setting new levels. "Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel" Samuel Johnson is reported to have said. They'll likely do case studies on Williams once this is over. Liam also does a nice job attacking Newfoundland patriotism as a smokescreen for rogues up to no good, so go there and read that wisdom.

Please tell me this isn't all there is, Danny. I've interview you before and chatted with you informally. You struck me then as a smart man with a decent vision for Newfoundland and Labrador. Tell me this isn't it. Tell me it's not 18 months of half decent progress with the rest of your premiership doing nothing but kicking up noise and hoping that no one notices what's (not) happening. That businesses are grumbling about too much government interference. That mainland investment is becoming increasingly skeptical about doing business up here. That you stalled two major oil projects with seemingly no rational reason. That Churchill Falls will likely be just as big a mess when you leave as when you arrived. That you've so alienated the Prime Minister's Office that they've come to the conclusion that the best strategy in dealing with Newfoundland is to just ignore you, even if that means sacrificing three sitting MPs. That rural Newfoundland is devastated with no sign of a game plan. That your cabinet is an empty shell and the smartest person in your caucus sits in exile in the backbenches wondering if she should run for federal politics.

The thing of it is, I still believe somewhere in there, Williams could actually figure this mess out and come up with a decent plan. If he were in opposition he certainly wouldn't tolerate a premier acting this way. But early onset political madness is apparently taking its toll on him. He's going to get reelected, but that says more about the quality of opposition (which is, let's face it, is as weak as anything in the annals of Newfoundland's post-Confederation history) than the quality of his government's recent decisions. I think I'm about ready to close the book on him actually solving anything.

I can't find the exact quote, but someone once said of Bill Clinton that the tragedy of his presidency could be found in the gulf between his potential and the reality. I suspect when they write the books on Williams they might be saying similar things.

Wilderness voices

I've got a few threads going on in this post, so bear with me as I work through it. Because I'm perplexed on a couple of Newfoundland political things.

First of all, I've read Rob Antle's articles and David Cochrane's speech on the current state of Newfoundland politics. Rob writes devastatingly about the IEC and Dave produces a nice, thoughtful piece on how the business community basically needs to grow a pair of balls. And so, for that matter, should the rest of the province.

By the way, this should nicely refute some sniping I've seen on other blogs about how toothless Newfoundland media is. Folks, reporting is like anything else. There are people who are good at it; there are people who are bad at it. The gifted ones, the ones who go after the story relentlessly, are subjected to the kind of sniping, second guessing, insulting and abuse that most people could not handle. It can be high stakes stuff to go after politicians – who normally have huge egos to begin with and don't take kindly to criticism. One government did its best to shut down the Sunday Express, and basically succeeded. Clyde Wells was famous for chewing out reporters. Brian Tobin tried to exile a CBC reporter for daring to ask questions about his wife. And I'm sure Danny Williams has engaged in similar intimidation tactics.

It's a hard job. I think most reporters do a good job given to what they're up against and the resources they possess. That's a great story Rob did. I wonder how long it took to write? It meant he likely wasn't available to do other stories. That probably put pressure on the editor to justify why one of his best reporters wasn't writing anything on a daily basis. Welcome to the business end of newspapers, where you won't have to strain too hard to hear sales people lament the waste of perfectly good ad space being taken up by news stories.

So let's give the reporters a bit of slack, shall we?

Anyway, I had a small moment of clarity when reading the pieces by Rob and Dave and stuff that I've read on other blogs. And that is commenting on how the pro-Danny forces come out and attack anytime when the government is criticized. That the open line shows are bombarded, that letters get written to newspapers, etc.

Fair enough. You couldn't pay me, literally, to listen to open line. In this case, the voice of the people sounds a little too much like they were dropped on their heads as babies. So I'm sure it's happening and I would hope the fact that it's so obvious and commented on would dampen some of its impact

But where is the Voice of the Government online? Where is it in local blogs? Because I can't think of more than a small few Newfoundland conservative bloggers online. And some of them, like Liam, clearly have issues with the way the current government is being run.

So where are they?

Yes, I know not every local blog is on NL Blogrolling. Yes, I know the number of people reading local blogs is relatively small compared to the number of people who listen to open line shows. But hey, apparently they get enough attention that the premier of the province apparently felt the urge to threaten to sue a couple of them. I would have thought that would be sufficient for swarms of people to come online and at least start leaving comments on the political blogs ripping anyone who speaks against Danny. And that pro-Danny blogs would spring forth.

And yet, no. Very odd. Thus the local political blogsphere, for the most part, remains anti-Danny. Not that I'm summoning forth the legions of Dannyites, you understand. I'm just wondering in a province that is supposedly 70 per cent in favour of the current government, why there aren't more people with blogs defending the actions of the current government.

You get the feeling that there is a slow resentment building up against Williams, but that it all remains bottled for the most part. And again, this comes only from what I'm observing online and not on the ground. So it's a very skewered observation. But I suspect if there was the right catalyst, the right person, or the right group out there, willing to speak up and say something that an avalanche might start to roll.

I don't know who or what that might be. The Liberals and NDP are effectively toothless and after the EIC scandal no one trusts them either. What you need is someone of prominence to stand up and say they're not running for office and they're affiliated with no party. They just want every politician in the House who was there previous to 2003 gone. Yes, you can argue the crowd from 2003-07 haven't been much better, but let's pick a nice clean number. Everyone before 2003 needs to go as punishment for the financial scandal.

That means voting against the incumbent, running against him or her for the party nomination or in the general election. An anti-2003 platform I think might work if the right person was driving it.

It probably won't happen. Danny has spin down pretty nicely at this point and has certainly mastered the art of the attack. And I do wish more people would show some balls in criticizing the government. There's still six months left. The quip in politics is that six months is a long time. And it is. But that's a pretty barren opposition landscape out there right now. If there is a voice crying out in the wilderness, then he or she might want to yell a bit louder. Time is running out.

Better off where he is

I don't normally pay too much attention to Justin Trudeau. He seems bright enough and hey, he wants to try and do something for his country and I respect that. And today's announcement that he's going to run in Papineau, Quebec at least eliminates the possibility of him doing something fairly stupid which was suggested in the Globe and Mail earlier the week by Aaron Spitzer, that being to run in Nunavut.

I don't talk much about politics in Nunavut and I have good reasons for that. It comes a little too close to my job and I try to keep blogging and my job as separate as possible. Plus, I've only been in Nunavut for 18 months. I have a clue about Nunavut politics, but I am far, far away from being an expert. Still, Spitzer's suggestion that Trudeau run in Nunavut in the next federal election was just so odd that I might have ignored it complete if it hadn't of run in the Globe and Mail.

Here's the thing – yes, the Liberals have won Nunavut in the last several federal elections. But I really don't think the political party made all that much difference in the vote. It was the person who ran that made all the difference. Remember, Nunavut runs on a consensus government. There are no political parties here and the political party infrastructure is kind of weak. It's rather refreshing, actually.

No, from what I've heard and read, it's more important who your family is, what connections you have and where you're located. For example, although Iqaluit is the largest community in the territory by a wide margin, a lot of the candidates in federal elections tend to come from the Kivalliq region (Rankin Inlet, Arviat, Baker Lake, etc). I couldn't tell you exactly why, but that's the way it is. I think four of the five candidates in the last federal election came from that region.

But here's the really important thing. It's more important than political parties, regional politics or the challenges of running a campaign here (during the last election candidates spent about half their campaign budgets on simply trying to travel around the territory). Justin Trudeau is white. Eighty-five per cent of Nunavut is Inuit or, you know, not white. Many Inuit rightly feel that Ottawa is ignoring their concerns as it is so are they going to send another white male, no matter how well connected or well meaning, to Ottawa or are they going to send an Inuit?

Plus, Trudeau might be famous in southern Canada, but I suspect a lot of people in Nunavut wouldn't know or care who he is.

I realize this is a moot point because Trudeau made up his mind. But it's just one of those things that stuck me as such a patently odd suggestion that I had to comment on it. And Spitzer seems to know the North and even worked as an editor in the territory for awhile. I would have thought looking at his resume that he would know a lot more about northern politics than me. I have no idea why he would think Trudeau would even run up here, let alone suggest it's a good idea (for either Trudeau or Nunavut) or that he would have a chance.

But hey, he got published in the Globe and Mail and likely got paid for it, so he's doing better than me in that regard.

Not completely evil as it turns out

Here's something that's surprising the hell out of me. Stephen Harper doesn't suck as a prime minister.

Now, I'm not saying I'm going to vote for the Conservatives in the next election (that depends a lot on who they run here. The last one was pretty vocal in his opposition to gay marriage, which pretty much made him a dead duck to me) or that I even want to see them get a majority government any time soon. A minority government with the NDP helping to keep them in power works quite nicely for me. Judging by the fact that none of the parties can gain any traction in the polls, it seems to be working quite nicely for most of us.

And yes, I know Stephane Dion has been taking a pounding in the polls and the national press this week. But I tend to lean on the side of some pundits and columnists I've read who remind people that Stephen Harper was behind in the polls in the last election and thought by many to be unelectable. Dion needs to get his act together, but he's hardly dead yet.

It's just that after so many years of being painted the anti-Christ, surprise surprise, Harper's actually not a bad prime minister. The country hasn't fallen apart in the last year. The economy continues to tick along nicely. Decisions are getting made and promptly. Social justice issues haven't been completely rolled back. Same sex marriage continues. Things seem to be quieting down with the separatists in Quebec. Newfoundland is unhappy, but guess what, we're always going to be unhappy.

And hell, I don't even have a problem with Canada being in Afghanistan or the military spending. If we want to be taken more seriously on the world stage, then engagements like Afghanistan are going to have to happen. And yes, it is tragic that men and women have been hurt and killed over there. But honest to God, I think they're making a difference. Maybe it's slow steps. Maybe peace is going to be a long ways away. But I think Afghanistan is better with a Canadian presence there than without one.

And yes, Harper's commitment to the environment is likely more of an attempt to cut the legs out from underneath Dion than a serious belief in the importance of the issue, but hey, it certainly seems to be working, doesn't it?

No, Harper isn't perfect. I don't agree with all the cuts he made in the past year. And I still can't shake the feeling that we would see a very different prime minister if he didn't have to behave in a minority government. But we're already starting to see the lead up to another federal election, this one likely around May. And unless there is a sudden shift in things – Mr. Harper is caught eating small children; Mr. Dion is shown burning tires in his back lawn or Mr. Layton makes a deal with Satan – then there will be another minority government.

I appreciate that politicians are not the smartest breed on the face of the planet, but you'd figure they might catch on sooner or later.

But hey, at least sign makers will make a fortune. Which reminds me, I wonder if any of the parties will make them out of recyclable materials?

A poisoned house

I think it was either Ed or Simon that was critical of the editorial writing of The Telegram. To be fair, good editorial writing is a damn sight harder than most people think. Just look at what's passing for an editorial in this week's Muse (sorry Sheena, but at the next ARCUP or CUP conference for the love of God get someone in to teach proper editorial writing. That's a column, not an editorial) for more proof.

It's hard. I did it for both The Packet and The Express and while I'm quite proud of some of the editorials I've written, I'm sure I had my share of clunkers. And I was only doing them once a week, sometimes only once a month. I can only imagine writing them every day. And perhaps it's different in dailies, but in every weekly I've ever worked for, editorials are normally the last thing written, and generally when you're pretty hard up on a deadline. So the proper thought, logic and argument doesn't always go into them that it should.

However, I liked this editorial in the Telegram on Thursday. The editorial is spot on about what it's like to cover St. John's City Council. I did my time in hell. I thought it would be exciting, then got disillusioned, then began a running commentary with my fellow reporters and eventually got to the point where I was done with it.

I like politics. I like covering politics. Hell, I got my start in journalism covering CSU meetings at MUN. Covering City Council is a gruelling, punishing assignment. There were times I wanted to yell at councillors for being idiots. Myself and other reporters would chat about how stupid some of the councillors were being. I was openly disdainful of one. When council considered putting aside somewhere between $5,000 to $10,000 for the creation of a St. John's Poet Laurette I told several of them that I would write stories on it that would make their eyes bleed because I considered it such an idiotic idea.

Understand, this is all very bad, very unprofessional behaviour for a journalist. I'm more than a touch embarrassed when I think back on it. But I swear, it's the building, or something in the water or just the general atmosphere of the place that makes you unprofessional. I don't think I was a bad reporter. I know several of my comrades in arms were among the better reporters in town...when on other assignments. But in there, you became almost as the lot of them.

The editorial writer nailed it in this case...it truly is a poison house when you can break even seasoned journalists into unprofessional behaviour. But it's also true that we can grovel to editors and ask for our freedom. God help the poor bastard who work there and have to deal with them day in and day out. I can only assume they're heavily medicated after their first two or three years.