Meet the new ethical standard, just like the old ethical standard

Joe Volpe hands all the non-Lib parties an early Xmas gift with his response to calls that he drop out of the leadership race:

As he prepared for the latest Liberal leadership forum in Winnipeg Saturday, Volpe said he's setting a new ethical standard that others should meet "or bow out of the race."...

On Friday fellow candidate Michael Ignatieff came close to calling on Volpe to bow out of the leadership contest, saying he has hurt the party's reputation. Volpe responded, saying he doesn't need to take lessons from anyone on how to serve the Liberal party.

Now, there's certainly reason to doubt that some of the other remaining candidates are also above criticism for their fund-raising and staffing so far. But the longer Volpe continues the Libs' tradition of dealing with dubious situations only grudgingly, after the fact and without admission that anything should even have been questioned, the less likely any eventual winner in the leadership race will be able to overcome the Libs' reputation once a general election rolls around.