Going, Going ....

And soon gone, would be my guess. Read this CBC report and watch the following video, both of which suggest to this observer that Eve Adams is not long for this political world:

Slip Slidin' Away

Slip sliding away, slip sliding away
You know the nearer your destination, the more you're slip sliding away
- Paul Simon

I know, by his public efforts to appear reasonably normal, that Stephen Harper is a Beatles' fan. Whether he has ever listened to or crooned any of Paul Simon's songs is less certain. Yet I couldn't help but think of Simon this morning as I read Lawrence Martin's latest piece in The Globe and Mail.

Entitled The Harper machine is in disarray, Martin reflects on the many obstacles that have emerged to obstruct what I presume is Dear Leader's destination, not only to win the next election but to become Canada's long-serving prime minister. (Put aside for the moment that he seems to have blighted our political landscape for far too long already.)

Like an aging tiger, Harper seems to be losing some of his truculence. As Martin notes,

Few expected this. The bet would have been that the Prime Minister would have gone to the wall to protect Dimitri Soudas, as he has many other loyalists after acts of folly.

But just four months after having been appointed, the Conservative Party’s executive director is out the door. He joins a lengthening list. In recent months, Stephen Harper has also lost his chief of staff, his finance minister and a Supreme Court nominee, plus several senators as a result of the expenses scandal.

Dimitri Soudas' dismissal, suggests Martin, may mark an act of Harper deference to the rank and file who are becoming increasingly restive chafing under their leader's storied iron grip on all facets of the operation. Why? Matin cites several reasons:

-His party has been trailing the Liberals in the polls.

-He presided over a scandal he claimed to know little about, but should have known a lot about.

-Rebellious caucus types have confronted him, demanding some freedom of speech.

-Former finance minister Jim Flaherty contradicted him on income-splitting, a major policy plank.

One could certainly add to this list considerably, but perhaps the most egregious example of trouble has to be the almost universal repugnance with which his current favourite puppet, Democratic Reform Minister Pierre Poilievre, is being met over the misnamed Fair Elections Act. I won't be surprised if loyalist Pierre is soon invited to sit in the party ejection seat as well.

Martin points out that similar problems of resistance and bickering have beset past prime ministers as they approach the 10-year mark, including Mulroney, Chretien and Trudeau, at which point it becomes a situation of fight or flight.

However unlikely, let us hope that Stephen Harper chooses the latter option.

Rick Mercer - One Of Our True Patriots

I love this guy. Watch the following video to see why:

Is The Master Losing His Grip?

Listen to The Globe's Campbell Clark and decide for yourself:

If Only We Could All Take This To Heart

Then where would the Harperites be?

What A Friend We Have In Stephen*

* With apologies to Joseph Scriven's original hymn, What a Friend We Have in Jesus.

One can only assume that these days there are far fewer congregants lustily singing the praises of their dark lord and master, Stephen Harper, in that hallowed place of worship known as the Conservative caucus. Their faith has, in recent times, been sorely shaken.

From the Moses-like figure who led them out of the political wilderness, Harper became a Jesus-figure, welcoming all into a family of shared values, righteousness, and integrity, intent on driving the money-changers from the temples of Parliament. That dream quickly faded, however, to be replaced by corruption, callousness, and exclusion that seem inevitable accompaniments of power; but at least the party faithful knew that some of the immense rewards of this world were well within their grasp, as long as they remained faithful and provided unquestioning service to their lord.

They are now learning that they were wrong.

While evidence has been circulating for years of Harper's willingness to abandon anyone who no longer served his agenda, recent events have demonstrated the absolute ruthlessness of his nature. There was, of course, his jettisoning of the terrible trio of Senators Duffy, Wallin, and Brazeau after having initially defending them in the house. As the optics changed, so did Harper's public pronouncements of them, to the point where they became personae no grata. More recently, as I noted in an earlier psst, there was his refusal to allow personal friendship with and deep political indebtedness to Nigel Wright stand in the way of publicly vilifying him as the chief-of-staff who betrayed him.

The most recent example of what some might describe as a lack of character at best, or as deeply pathological at worst, is the firing of Dimitri Souda, another Harper loyalist who answered his master's call to leave his current job, as he has done before, to become executive director of the Conservative Party of Canada. Because it became public that he was trying to gerrymander the nomination process so that the love of his life could steal win the nomination over a local favourite in the new riding of Oakville-North Burlington, he has been fired, as reported in The Toronto Star. Soudas' firing followed that of Wally Butts, a party organizer who had complained about Soudas' strongarm tactics.

Eve Adams’ campaign chairman, Stephen Sparling, denies that Soudas was fired, saying he voluntarily resigned so he could be more deeply engaged in Adams’ campaign. “He’s taken a new private-sector role and he’s freed up to work on his partner’s behalf”.

Perhaps on the strength of her own deep and abiding loyalty (start the link video at the five-minute mark) to Mr. Harper, Ms Adams still believes the nomination is within her reach.

Hmmm. I wonder if she remembers the name Helena Guergis?

Be Very Careful

If you see this man, be aware of the danger he poses to Canada's democracy. Take all necessary precautions to avoid direct contact:



H/t Operation Maple via trapdinawrpool