Barrel Strength

I don’t question the necessity of the Maxime Bernier resignation. But is that the extent of stunning incompetence amongst our parliamentarians?

Watching today’s brooaadcast on Newman’s “Politics”, I am baffled by some suppositions raised by Serge Menard and Bob Rae.

Firstly, Bloqhead Serge Menard talks about the claim of a listening device found underneath Mme. Couillard’s bed, wondering who could have placed it. If a private security firm can find it, odds are that no government agency placed it. For years intelligence and police operatives have gotten reliable voice monitoring by pinging a laser beam off a window in the target building. If true, this is the stuff of second-rate gumshoe work.

And then Menard ventures that people are more likely to discuss state secrets in the kitchen than the bedroom. WTF, M. Menard?! Would anyone take counsel from someone who appears to have no knowledge of the Profumo scandal, the Stasi archives or at least one spy thriller?

Secondly, Liberal and Great Canadian™ Bob Rae moaned about the need to preserve the honour of the post of Foreign Minister. Did he ever have a chance to talk to the man he replaced in Parliament, who coincidentally had been a Canadian Foreign Minister? To refresh his memory, it was Bill Graham, the man who also maintained a hideaway for an underage male prostitute who was his surreptious lover. Doubt it, Bob? Google “Lawrence Metherel”. Then come back to the table and talk about ministerial propriety.

This should be on page one of every newspaper in the country. I cannot add anything to what Ezra Levant has written but my disgust.

Kate informs us that the Messiah, aka Obama, has expanded his skill-set and it now includes raising the dead. It once again highlights what your correspondent has previously thought about his oratory skills.

As soon as the Teleprompter King™ deviates from a prepared text, he is in trouble. The fatal phrase that he uttered, “and I see many of them in the audience here today”, seems to be an idle ad lib on his part when one examines the corresponding video. When one hears him being interviewed, it is surprising to hear the umms and ahhs in his response. Your correspondent is old enough to recall that when Ted Kennedy’s presidential campaign began to falter, the newspaper started including the verbal annoyances in the text as a signal that it was time to stick a fork in the pig. Will the Messiah’s campaign follow a similar path?

May 30, 2008
Update: The WSJ Opinion column agrees:

As smart and credentialed as he is, Sen. Obama is often an indifferent speaker without a teleprompter.